Curly To Straight: The Psychology of Hair

For a woman with curly hair, acquiescing  to straightening is perceived as selling out–not by others, but by oneself. I think part of who I am is the the kinky mane I was born with, before curly hair salons, before silicon-heavy frizz reduction products, before the ceramic irons that at 500-degree heat can make many hair types straight. But the truth is, when you get home, very few items work on the type of hair that naturally wants to matte and lock. Most of the time, all I’m left with is a few good hair days and many frustrating days of frizz and knots. However, to date, the only at-home product that brought me close to having it both ways is the TV-touted InStyler.

Long advertised on TV, just one use caused my cousin to run to Target to buy her own InStyler, the best way someone with curly or straight hair can emulate a salon blow dry, on the cheap. For me, with kinky curls, courtesy of my dad’s hair, once a sky-high afro, I’ve continued to search for haircare items that keep the curls loose, because that’s the best time to use the InStyler.

To use the InStyler, once hair is dry, just section hair off and run it through the system, which combines a brush and a rolling heat-activated piece to straighten hair while detangling. Though the system, which appears to be the model after which Paris Hilton based her new Celebrity Styler, takes a bit to get used to, it is easier and faster than any other attempt to calm a full-body curly hair mane. In regards to the personal dilemma, I had one woman’s quote to thank for rethinking the curly versus straight dilemma. After getting her hair relaxed, this African American woman told Allure that while she always thought getting her hair straightened would be giving up part of her self, it ended up allowing people to see her, not her hair. I couldn’t say it better, even though I went a different route. I gave up the straightening, relaxing, thinning, and all that chemical mess years ago, and thanks to one product, the InStyler, I’ve resisted the temptation to relapse.

While you can order it online, your local Target is likely to stock the InStyler.