DevaCurl Disaster?

I was given the awesome opportunity to model for DevaCurl at the Arlington Fashion Focus show in Arlington, Texas on Saturday, May 6th. I've never had a curly cut (or Deva Cut) before, and I had only tried one of their products so I was excited. Also, I needed an actual shape to my curly fro so I found these people to be idealistic. After my whole experience with DevaCurl, I was not impressed, and I'm about to give you the run down as to why.

After getting my "before" pictures taken, I was sat in THE chair (in front of everyone at the show, which was nerve-wracking) to prepare for my haircut. The stylist consulted with me on what I wanted and what I was looking for, then she began to cut. I assumed the method of cutting curl by curl would be tedious, but I didn't imagine it would take that long, which was not an issue at all. The more time she took, the better because I would not want to walk out of there with a busted haircut.

    I'd say it took about half an hour for her to go through my whole head of hair. I'm not gonna lie, when she finished I was super nervous because my head felt noticeably lighter. I've seen many horror stories of people going into the salon with long, lucious locks and leaving with their big chop, so I was honestly preparing for the worst. 

Next, was washing and styling. Now, keep in mind, I was previously instructed to come with freshly cleansed hair with little to no product in it. It was supposed to look "messy" they stated. They actually recommended me to wash my hair and just leave in a little bit of conditioner, and that's what I did. Soooo I was a bit confused when they began using DevaCurl No-Poo Original on my hair. I know my hair pretty well, so I knew flakes were in my future. After instructing the crowd on how to work the product and getting a couple pitchers of water poured on my head, it was time to condition. 

They used the One Condtion Original as my conditioner and my leave in.. which I kind of premeditated to be a disaster. I say this because my hair doesn't take well to those all-around type of products, or some regular conditioners being used as leave ins. They did finger detangle though, which was awesome, BUT, I could feel that my hair was not getting the hydration it needed by the way they were pulling through it. Yes, I did ask for volume, but I can still achieve volume with moisturized hair. 

    They barely washed out the conditioner, then proceeded to remove me from the sink, have me flip my hair all the way over, for them to apply the Ultra Defining Gel on my soaking wet, dehydrated curls. My hair doesn't do well with being styled while soaking wet, but I had hopes for the gel. Assuming this was the last step before drying, I let out a sigh of relief. 

I was then allowed to flip my hair back up and she continued to place gel where needed. She also finger-coiled some pieces (which my hair doesn't like either) and they began to position the clips in my hair to "achieve volume" while drying. I thought I was about to go under the dryer, and then I see her pick up the Super Cream and started applying it to my hair. Knowing my hair, it's pretty pointless to apply a cream after a gel, because it'll just sit on top of everything, not being able to showcase its actual purpose. But, I kept sitting there looking cute, letting them do their thing. 

Finally, I'm all set to dry. Which was like sitting in Satan's sauna, literally. I'm pretty sure this is the part in the day where all of my makeup melted off, and not when I stepped outside in that Texas heat. It seemed like it was on full blast too, which I understand y'all kind of have a time limit but, I have a life to live. I wanna make it out of here in one piece, or at least not melted. I say under the dryer for at least half an hour, and my hair still wasn't dry on the ends. They decided to set me free and to diffuse my hair the rest of the way dry. 

    After some fluffing and cleaning up with the sheers, they revealed my new fro shape. It looked great, it looked even, I loved it. (As I still do, it's just something I'm gonna have to get used to.) I didn't think I would lose that much length, but I'm happy my hair will now grow out the way I want it to (because I had a literal shelf in my hair), and I have more volume. 

We took some after pictures, they gave me some free stuff, and bam, I left. I went straight to the bathroom to gawk at myself in a civilized manner, and all was well until I actually touched my hair. I'm not lying when I say my hair felt like literal straw. It was not moisturized, my curls at the bottom weren't even defined, and it smelled very similar to my grandmother's house. I was very disappointed, I had heard so many good things about these products, but they just didn't work for my hair. 

    The more the day went on, the more annoyed I was with how my hair felt and smelled. I had no choice but to wash it. It was so dry that I'm pretty sure it would have broken off had I gone to sleep on it.

On a more positive note, out of this whole experience I learned that just because something works for someone else, or even everyone else, doesn't mean it'll work for me, and I got an even, voluminous haircut. Stick to what works for YOU, and don't follow the hype. This was a wonderful opportunity, my friend and I had fun at the show, but unfortunately, DevaCurl products are just not for these tresses. 

@PeachyMulatto

xx