The Rise of Curly Hair Routines on Tiktok- Helping People to Embrace Their Hair One Video At A Time

Image Courtesy: Graphic Design

Styling curly and wavy hair is an arduous task. For years, people have piled on countless products, desperate to tame the forest of curls on their heads. Often, they find themselves left with a crunchy, sticky, or crazy mess.

I grew up as one of these people lost in the world of curly hair care. My mom has pin-straight hair, so she knew nothing about styling curly hair. This left me and my wavy, Latina-locks in a tough situation. Luckily, my mom was pretty talented at braiding my hair or doing other cute up-dos. My friends would always compliment her beautiful work, but once I reached my teenage years, my mom voiced that I should start learning how to do my own hair.

She was right but I was frustrated. I found myself wishing for the straight hair of my friends, and the closest I could get to that was washing my hair and air drying it. This just left me with puffy, wannabe straight hair. I wasn’t talented at doing hair like my mom, so if I couldn’t handle the embarrassment of wearing my hair down for the day, I would throw it up in a bun or ponytail.

I hated my hair for a long time, pretty much until this June when Greta Wilson’s hair routine went viral on TikTok. Since then, there have been 46.1 million videos under #gretawilsonhairroutine and this number grows every day. First, she applies the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Curl Cream all over her wet hair, followed by the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Mousse, scrunching the excess product out with a microfiber towel, and finally tops it off with the Kinky Curly Curling Custard before diffusing.

Over the next couple of weeks, videos would pop up on my For You Page of girls trying Greta's hair routine, and the results were spectacular. The more people I saw tried the routine with success, the more I was influenced to buy the products and try the routine. For the first time, I was excited and filled with hope, and for good reason. I had never seen my hair look this good before. 

My For You Page also introduced me to the routines of other curly-haired influencers, one in particular that stood out to me was Ashley Lamarca. She explained the products, steps, and what they do in great detail. First, she uses the Redken leave-in conditioner for nourishment, then she lathers the Ouai Curl Cream all over her damp hair and applies any type of mousse to her roots, making sure to really scrub it into the scalp to get volume. Lastly, she scrunches Eco Hair Gel into her hair to hold the curls. After diffusing, you get your luscious beautiful curls.

TikTok has become a really great place to help people who struggle with things that others have mastered. As for hair, there is an infinite selection of curly hair routines to choose from and keep trying until you find one that works for you. Right now, I am doing a variation of Ashley’s routine on my hair with Shea Moisture's Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie, Frizz Free Curl Mousse and Defining Styling Gel. The rise of these curly hair routines on TikTok helped me to start loving and embracing my hair. If you have struggled with your hair before and haven’t tried one of these routines yet, I hope this has inspired you to do so.

Strike Out,

Writer: Kim Rodriguez

Editor: Kaninika Dey

Graphic Design: Alexis Rodriguez

Boston