“Are there curly people in Russia?”: How I learned to cut curls
Tired of the fact that in Russia no one knows how to cut her curly hair, Anastasia Androsova abandoned her career in IT, completed a full course of study in Mecca of the curly movement - DevaCurl Academy in New York - and became Russia's first certified specialist in curls, a member of the international association Curly Hair Artistry. Now she mows girls in their homeland.
Why no one knows how to care for curls
Of course, I always knew that I had curls, just did not know how to care for them and straightened. They looked good after washing, but the next day I didn’t like anything. Once my husband, seeing me not combed, after the sea, said: "Nastya, why do you straighten your hair? Go so!" And I thought, "Well, okay." I began to look for information on how to care for my hair and style it so that they curled tightly curled and not fluffed, but found nothing in Russian. In the end, I came across the famous American book Lorraine Massey: from it I learned about the brand of care for curly people DevaCurl, a whole network of salons and a school of stylists.
The next step was to look for a hairdresser who understands how to cut me to keep curls. But in Moscow, I did not find anything. I myself always went to the "Person", but since I straightened my hair, I did not care how they cut my hair. Then I thought that it would be nice to bring the proper care technique for curly hair to Russia. When the project at work froze and I began to look for a new place, the husband asked: "Nastya, and you definitely do not want to do something else? You kind of wanted something your own? I will help you." As a result, I wrote a letter to New York: "What does it take to complete a full course of study at DevaCurl?" They replied: "It is necessary that you have a diploma of a hairdresser and you know how to hold scissors." Then I found courses in Moscow and graduated in six months.
I somehow overheard the conversation. The student asked: "How to cut curly hair?" The teacher replied: "Well, you need to pull them out and bring them under one length, otherwise how will we know if they are even or not?"
During the training at the hairdresser’s school in Moscow, the only thing they said about curly hair was: “No need to milling them,” however, this doesn’t stop anyone. I somehow overheard the teacher's conversation with the student. He asked: "How to cut curly hair?" She replied: "Well, you need to pull them out and bring them under one length, otherwise how will we know if they are even or not?"
For some reason, no one thinks about how people with curly hair feel a week after the haircut. Maybe because in Russia everyone loves to straighten hair? Or in Russia, everyone loves to straighten hair, because no one knows how to handle curls? The same thinning destroys the curl: after it, it puffs up and twists badly. After thinning, which even the most experienced Russian hairdressers love to do, the first weeks will be easier for you. But then, when the hairstyle will grow, it will become more and more difficult to cope with the strands, they will stick in different directions. This is such a well-known trick: right after the haircut, it is easy and good for you, and then problems begin.
How to cut curls in the US
The native academy believes that curls are a gift from God. They need to love. The perfect haircut for curls is always a cascade in which the texture of curls is visible. The form can be different: the bob, the pixie, the triangle, and the waterfall.
Technique haircuts - a great science: first, they can not pull and comb. When I cut my hair, I use only my hands and scissors. Secondly, this is done only dry, strand by strand, considering the spring factor - the ability of the curl to gather after stretching. Cut the curl so that the shape in the form of the letter S is preserved, thanks to this we take into account the behavior of each curl. When the barber, as often happens, is cutting wet, combed hair, he has no idea how the strands will form after drying.
Curly hair can not tolerate sulphates and silicones and require constant moisturizing with balsam; in front of him, I do a cleansing with vitamin C. Unfortunately, most of the girls who come to me use unsuitable shampoos, which must be washed out of the hair first, otherwise moisture will not work. I use the products of the American DevaCurl and the British Trepadora, but it is too expensive for the salon to order cosmetics from Europe and the USA, so now I'm trying to develop my own brand.
About Russian customers
I was the first hairdresser from Russia whom I saw at the academy. I was seriously asked: "What? In Russia there are curly people?" In our country, few people know how to properly care for curly hair. Even those who have guessed that it is not necessary to comb, a tenth of the force. The biggest problem that customers come with is that it’s all pushing. For some reason, people believe that the fluffiness is removed by styling products, but it is not. "Pooh" is a lack of moisture: hair is trying to get it out of the air, therefore, the most important thing in care is moisturizing. Most often in Russia, people have wavy hair with low porosity. For them, shampoos with cocosulfate and not very fat balms, gels are well suited. If there is a lot of hair, it is very curly and porous, then it is better to use sulphate-free shampoos and creams. If the hair is small, but you want a volume, natural skins and sprays will help.
Some come for a haircut after keratin straightening, which eventually begins to grow and looks strange. To bring hair in order after this procedure, it is best to cut the affected mass entirely, but no one decides on this. Hair after chemical straightening is burned out and unhappy, to the touch how much bleached it refuses to curl for a long time. I do not recommend chemically changing the structure of the hair - it takes more than a year to restore the old curls.
The biggest problem that customers come with is that it’s all pushing. "Pooh" is a lack of moisture: the hair is trying to get it out of the air, therefore the most important thing in care is moisturizing
At the academy, where I studied, staining is treated with caution: of course, if we discolor the strands, then curls will form worse. I explain to all customers who want an ashy hairstyle, what damage the process will do: no need to lighten the hair by more than two or three tones. I myself am not a colorist, but I like to draw individual highlights - it revives the curl.
When I returned to Moscow, I already had clients: I led the VKontakte group and on Instagram, people found me through a hashtag. Changing my profile from an IT consultant to a hairdresser was difficult psychologically. This was especially a blow to relatives: “Nastya, do you want to be a service staff? Why did you study for six years then?” But, thank God, my husband and friends were for me. Now I am looking for a room for the salon and I am glad that everything turned out that way.
