In Search of Better Hair Days

On my beach waves hair routine.

There are many places you might expect to receive a compliment about your hair — a friend’s wedding, your birthday party, immediately post-blow out — but the second leg of a 13-hour travel day is not one of them. And yet, that’s exactly what happened when a very nice woman about my age leaned over as I passed her in the aisle to tell me that she thought my hair looked beautiful. Me?? I gasped, hauling my overstuffed tote back higher onto my shoulder, snagging over my boob-grazing blonde waves in the process. This kind of interaction reinforces everything I believe about the beauty world, namely that if you think someone looks good, you never, ever, keep that shit to yourself. Tell them! Make their day! Don’t hide away your compliments for fear of sounding intrusive or awkward.

Case in point: I smiled, thanked her, and shuffled back to my middle seat between two grown men who seemed to think I was going to forfeit the armrests for the entirety of our four hour flight (I did not). But back to the hair.

Figuring out what products and technique works for your hair is a long, frustrating process, especially when you have texture. My type 2A/2B waves used to receive a rough brushing after a shower and… not much else, which is why photos of myself from the years 1994-2001 will never grace the internet if I can help it. I used to yearn so desperately for my childhood best friend’s baby blonde, pin straight hair, which required little in the way of styling and was perfectly in sync with the ‘00s flat-ironed-to-death trend of the time. And while I did ultimately spend upwards of an hour before school frying my fluffy shoulder length into smooth submission, it took many more years before I learned how to master my natural curls.

Behold, my hair after an entire day of travel

Now the issue seems to be that YouTube and TikTok have shown us that there are endless ways to achieve frizz-free, perfectly defined waves and curls. Plopping, the bowl method, product cocktailing — even for a beauty editor the options are more than a little overwhelming. But after 34 years I seem to have found a few methods and formulas to give me the beachy, bohemian waves that look they way I want them to at least 87% of the time (which, in curly girl math, is pretty damn good). I can’t guarantee that you’ll always have a good hair day when you’re traveling by car, plane, another plane, another car with this routine, but it might just be the stepping stone to more consistently manageable hair that deserves copious selfies — even in public!

The Secret to My Undone Waves