The curly girl movement might be all the rage right now, but it is also more important than ever. Celebrating natural hair texture outside of mainstream ideals is a refreshing break from the now normalized ideal of perfection. Let’s be clear though. Whether you prefer to wear your hair naturally or not is a matter of choice. And it’s this choice that makes all the difference to women who have been conditioned to styling their hair in a specific way to assimilate to societal norms. Thank you mainstream media. Not.
A la mode hairstyles don’t come easily to people with different hair textures, from those famous feathery Farrah Fawcett waves of the 70s, to Jennifer Anniston’s signature ‘The Rachel’ layered cut which was always coiffed to perfection, curly girls always had it hard. Growing up in a Middle Eastern society where Arab women are always expected to have their hair straightened to oblivion because it looked ‘put together’ and ‘more acceptable’ was exhausting, and I still recall the comments from family and friends asking me if I’m “…going to go out like that?” whenever I’d wear my hair naturally.
But really, this notion isn’t necessarily native to Arab culture. Any woman with naturally textured hair who happens to live in a place that celebrates straight hair can immediately relate, and 26-year-old curly girl extraordinaire and Shop Curls Founder Badriya Al Haid is no stranger to this struggle. We talk all things curls with Badriya to learn more about why she started Shop Curls, her personal natural hair journey and how she is helping curly girls around the GCC embrace and celebrate their natural hair texture.
Besides beautiful curls, what are you passionate about and what do you do from 9-5?
I’m passionate about clean beauty, animals, adventures, nature, tv shows and comfort food. I love all things tech and graphic design; I have been creating websites ever since I was in Middle School. By day, I’m a Civil Engineer currently working on a construction site of a large, challenging infrastructure project in Kuwait – very different from Shop Curls but I love it too.
What motivated you to embrace your curls? Was there a specific turning point that made you decide to stop straightening your curls and opt for a more natural look?
There definitely was! I was straightening my curls for almost 10 years simply because I did not know how to care for my curls and because our societal norms have conditioned us to believe that curly hair only needs to be straightened to look beautiful. I had a bad experience with a permanent straightening keratin treatment by a salon which resulted in chemically altering my hair to silky straight. My hair grew curly from the roots yet stayed super straight in the bottom. The quick solution was to keep redoing the treatment on my roots every few months to keep it all straight, but I knew this would be a never-ending cycle.
I could have done a big chop but I decided to slowly grow it out and only get tiny trims as I love long hair, and this took five of my university years. It was a very tough journey, organizing my time and days around engineering exams and organizing my time around my hair struggles. I just knew I could not go on like this for the rest of my life, it was exhausting and I was giving my blow-drys way too much time and priority.
After I graduated from university, I decided it was time to stop. I did not take a job right away so I knew it was my only chance to give my hair a break from heat styling and not worry about where I’ll be seen with my unruly, damaged hair. I really just wanted to experience an easier, more care- free routine where I can wash my hair and leave the house immediately without spending an hour straightening and burning my hair.
What is it about our cultural norms that drives women to ‘conform’ and ‘fix their hair’ which bother you the most?
What bothers me the most is how it’s very easy for some people, mostly from the older generation, to casually mention how messy our hair looks, how it’s not beautiful. I believe this has a major impact, either on the girl’s confidence, or actually affecting her own opinion on textured hair. It bothers me that so many girls have experienced this, some girls have even reached out to me regarding getting bullied by family members or in school for their hair.
It’s actually shocking how unaccepted textured hair was in Kuwait especially when a majority of us have textured hair. It bothers me how normal it is to quickly schedule a blow-dry once invited to any formal occasion. Why? Why is blow-dried hair linked to looking more beautiful for occasions? Can’t someone still look elegant and formal in their natural hair?
Why do you think that other women may be discouraged to simply wear their hair naturally?
I feel like a lot of women are scared to look “different” or “exotic”. I think our culture may be a little too focused on looks and I feel like women are controlled by society to look or dress a certain way. Curly hair takes courage and confidence as it is attractive and different than what we’re used to. A lot of women also feel like curly hair is tricky to match with certain outfits and some feel like it ruins a good outfit. Many think blow-dried or straightened hair is linked to looking neat, clean and elegant, which is not true. I believe natural hair makes a person look 10x more beautiful not only because curly hair is nice, but because it makes a person look confident, outgoing, care-free and strong. Natural hair goes with any occasion and in fact compleiments outfits, even evening wear.
Many are calling the Curly Girl Movement a trend. How do you feel about that statement?
It saddens me that curly hair is being considered a trend as trends come and go. It also saddens me that I have been receiving many emails and messages from girls with straight hair who beg me to help them make their hair curly with products as it is currently trendy. Curly hair is not a trend – this movement is all about embracing natural hair, embracing your own hair and not trying to change it to follow a trend.
It’s a nice coincidence that most girls have discovered they have curly hair (or naturally textured hair) during the pandemic when they stopped blow-drying their hair, but it does not make Curly Hair a 2020 trend. If calling it a trend will help push girls into keeping their hair natural and feel trendy, then sure, so be it, but I hope this stays as a “permanent trend.”
How did your journey with Shop Curls begin?
So once I quit using heat after graduation, I slowly started seeing a little more curls. I lived aboard for a year where I was introduced to so many accessible curly hair brands, I had no idea that all of this existed, it was a whole other world. I then started all my research on curly hair and testing out SO MANY products. I understood my curls more, I understood ingredient selections more and worked on finally recovering my curls and wearing them naturally in a healthy state. I was amazed, my hair never in my whole life looked this curly and this nice. I got compliments about my hair all the time and I slowly started getting more and more confident about it.
I then started helping out friends & family who lost their curls from a similar experience and all had great results. All of these experiences inspired me to turn my passion into a business. I was in both the US & the UK at that time where I met some brands’ teams, decided on the partnership and started my business. I am now 3+ years natural & curly.I truly believe beauty is all about embracing what you have and I’m on a mission to make every girl confident about her natural hair.
How is Shop Curls helping women in Kuwait and the GCC with their curly girl routines?
The biggest help Shop Curls is doing is motivating both women and men in keeping their hair natural, embracing it and loving it. Shop Curls helps them understand their hair characteristics from its history, texture, density, porosity and to identifying what it needs. Shop Curls is not just a store looking to sell products and make profit, we are committed to consulting our customers about clean ingredients, and what suits their hair condition. Buying clean products is just the first baby step into wearing your hair naturally. Commitment and patience in experimenting with products and techniques is more important. We try to break down all the different ways a customer can use and benefit from a product to the maximum and to help them understand how to make it work to suit their specific hair type. We also offer consultation services from video calls to customizing plans to in salon consultation service.
For anyone interested in pursuing a more natural hair care routine, where would they even begin? There is simply so much information out there and it can be daunting.
I suggest by starting with our hashtag on Instagram #ShopCurls101 and our IGTV @ShopCurls for the essential information needed to start. Start by cutting off heat usage, use only clean products and start off with a deep conditioning mask, a cleanser (shampoo), conditioner and a gel to define, style and hold. Slowly start building your routine instead of purchasing so many products at one time. It’s hard to completely guess what suits your hair exactly from the first time without trying something and having an opinion on it or going on YouTube for reviews or some research on the brand and its ingredients. I highly recommend purchasing trial size products from different brands and experimenting with them.
Trial and error is essential in figuring out what works for you. You can be using the right products but in the wrong ways which can end with a disappointing result. I suggest contacting us for a one-on-one consultation if things get too overwhelming as people usually quit from the amount of information on the internet. And here’s a special surprise, I have created a custom starter kit that can be found by bazaar readers only, hop onto shopcurls.com and search for bazaarvip!
Personally, I feel that the curly girl movement or natural hair movement is a self-awakening of sorts. Do you see the desire toward natural products that nourish and clean spilling over to other beauty segments?
Definitely! I think clean beauty from skincare to makeup has been around for a while but may have not reached the right audience in Kuwait. I believe what makes natural haircare more popular than natural skincare is how you are able to see different results with every washday depending on the products, combinations and the hundreds of techniques someone can experiment with. This makes it so different than natural skincare, which takes much longer to see results and you aren’t able to manipulate your results with every use / getting a different look to suit an occasion like haircare. I believe anyone who has experienced natural hair products and how they work on nourishing the hair inside out will now be willing to give clean skincare and makeup a chance.
Interested in starting your natural hair journey? Head to shopcurls.com and look up bazaarvip to get your hands on the starter kit! For the latest updates and to book your one-on-one consultation, check out @ShopCurls on Instagram.
