Curly hair has been shunned for long enough. It's definitely back, and just in time: Brazilian Blowouts have been proven to contain carcinogenic ingredients (that are serious enough to require a warning in California and the company was slapped with a fine for false labelling). On top of that, the chemical hair straightener is just plain hard on hair, leading to breakage and dry frizziness (the kind that can only be fixed by another $300-$500 treatment). 

 

 

Even the Brazilians are in on it. As Forbes reports, the next big trend coming out from the South American hair trendsetter is Beleza Natural, a woman-owned company that gives back to the community and encourages women to embrace their curls, with special cuts and products designed to make the most of curly hair's volume and personality. Beleza is now so popular in Brazil that the company is exporting the curl love, and soon residents of New York City will be able to get in on the trend. 

 

Of course Beleza's not the first company to encourage love of one's natural curly hair texture. The Devachan salon is well-known in Manhattan for being a great curl-caretaker (appointments there include a haircut and instruction about how to style and dry curly hair properly). And most big cities now have a curly-hair specific salon, so Google "curly hair salon" and your city and see what comes up. 

 

If you don't have the time, money or energy to get to a salon (I've been cutting my own hair for the last year and am very pleased with the results), there are now numerous incredibly helpful videos and tutorials online (like the Curly Girl method) that detail how to care for curly hair (it's dramatically different than what you have likely been taught up until now about how to wash, condition and dry hair). That's because curly hair is less strong, more porous, and grows a bit slower than straight hair. It needs different treatment (and a lot less washing), as well as different products. But there are plenty out there, so you can stop torturing (and poisoning) yourself in your quest for straight hair as soon as your next shower.