My hair was curly as a kid 700

Photo by Karston Tannis

I once met an older woman with slightly wavy hair who looked at my 2c/3a curls wistfully and said, "Before I had kids, I had beautiful curly pilus similar yours."

I didn't know how to reply because I had no idea that could happen!

Sure, I knew that many mothers dread their infant'due south offset haircut considering often, in one case cut, the adorable ringlets are never quite the same. But I hadn't heard of someone who lived their whole life with luscious curls just to lose them postpartum.

Over on CurlTalk, we've heard from community members who lost the curl pattern they had as a child. Why does this happen?

Curl patterns depend on genetic, hormonal, and ecology factors in addition to your pilus care regimen. If that sounds like a lot of factors — that's considering it is!

Folks with curly hair know that experimentation and technique are essential getting your curl design to be its healthiest. The good news is that if you had curly hair every bit a child, chances are good that you tin implement certain changes to aid your hair get curlier over again.

In this article, I hope to hash out some factors that determine the curliness of your hair and propose some ways to unlock your untapped scroll potential.

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Genetics

Curl pattern is genetically programmed just like eye color, height, and most other aspects of phenotype. Throughout our lives, however, we experience biological changes to our pilus texture. By diameter, our hair tends to go gradually thicker into adulthood, thinning over again in middle and onetime age. These changes can bear upon curl pattern.

Science has proved that the shape of the hair follicle determines curliness, just it's not clear what determines the shape of the hair follicle. The more perfectly circular the follicle, the straighter the hair. When follicles are less symmetrical, that's when interesting things similar curls, waves, kinks, and coils happen!

In a newspaper by Westgate et. al. in 2017, the scientists note that "The strongest evidence for the control of shape comes from the show of the role of the inner root sheath [a office of the follicle] which appears to structurally mould pilus fibre shape, including curl—but we are still a very long style from agreement the complete biological/biophysical mechanisms that produce such a wide range of curled, coiled, kinked and wavy hair fibres."

Simply the plot thickens, as DNA lonely doesn't tell the full story.

Hormones

In 2015, 1 of our co-founders, Michelle Breyer, wrote a helpful article entitled, "Why Does Pilus Texture Modify Throughout Life?" In it, Michelle writes about the three major hormones that affect hair:

  • Thyroxine and triiodothyronine from the thyroid — too little causes brittleness and hair loss
  • Androgen from the adrenal glands — too piddling can cause hair thinning
  • Insulin from the pancreas — too much or too footling tin crusade pilus loss and/or changes in the way your hair looks or feels

Drastic hormonal changes or medical treatments like chemotherapy can besides alter the muscles in your hair follicles and crusade new hair patterns to sally. Hormonal changes around puberty can also bear on your pilus's texture.

So what tin I do?

Reverse harm

If you've had long hair in the by twenty years or so, there's a high chance you accept chemical or heat damage. Even years of using products with sulfates can wreak havoc on naturally curly pilus. Repeated use of a straightening iron tin crusade curly roots but straight, damaged ends. If you've bleached your hair frequently in recent years, you might look into protein treatments.

Some of this damage is reversible, simply sometimes you may to go a big chop in order to restart.

Consider a cut

Another fashion to unlock your curls is to talk to a stylist who specializes in curly hair. About haircuts are washed while your hair is wet, which makes it almost impossible to see your scroll pattern in its natural state. A professional person might exist able to help y'all think differently most your hair and advise some personalized products or practices to aid y'all regain your old locks.

Learn more past reading What is a Deva Cut? Is information technology for Me?

Daily intendance

If there'southward something that people with healthy curly pilus know that the residuum of the world does not, it's the Curly Girl Method. This regimen will experience completely foreign to anyone who has straight hair. I used this method to "train" my hair to be curly in loftier school after I did a large chop — and my hair has been curly ever since.

Are you lot prepare for our underground? Here information technology is: the Curly Girl Method.

Good luck! Let the states know if you start to see changes in your roll design after implementing whatever of the suggestions higher up.

Here'south our CurlTalk thread if yous desire to add your own story: Curly as a kid; straighter now?