Julia Rizzo
CurlyTeen Scene is a column especially for curly teens. Julia Rizzo is a teenager living in Central New York. When not writing, she enjoys acting, reading and snow skiing. She has loved writing as long as she can remember, and plans to pursue a career in English. She hopes her column will provide encouragement and inspire girls to love their curly hair.
Some mornings, when I walk in my bathroom or turn on the shower, I feel like the shampoo bottles have been procreating while I was asleep. Different bottles fall off their little shelf in the shower, compete for space in drawers, and go ignored in the cabinet underneath the sink.
My sister and I have a bit of a hair product problem. I’ll admit it. We’re addicted.
It began in seventh grade — the first time I used a styling aid in my hair. The transformation was quick and dramatic. My frizzy tresses were suddenly shiny, S-shaped curls.
I got my fix at our local grocery store, Wegmans, which has a huge hair-care aisle. The products are inexpensive and attractively packaged; it’s hard not to fall prey to their clever marketing schemes.
But now it’s time to scale back and stick with my tried and true favorites. My sister and I have amassed enough hair products to keep most of our friends supplied for years. However, we’re tired of tripping over bottles in the shower. So we’ve decided to do some spring-cleaning.
Our first step: throw stuff out. We send empty bottles of shampoo and conditioner sailing into the recycling bin. Broken hair clips, leaky travel-sized bottles and the stinky herbal conditioner that we both hate quickly join them.
Next, we survey what remains. We have a habit of buying new products just before the old ones run out and then switching before we finish off the last one. We decide to combine all the leftover conditioner in one bottle, and the shampoo in another. Besides being a slightly odd grayish color, the resulting mix smells great and works just as well (if not better”> then the different brands did individually.
Finally, we agree to stick with one brand of each product. We resolve to buy one bottle and use it until it’s gone before we buy the next. I have a weakness for styling products; she has a weakness for leave-in-conditioner. But we’ll use up what we have before getting anything new, no matter how appealing the shape of the container.
We high five as we examine our small, newly organized, bathroom. Some girls are addicted to shoes; other seek out the hippest clothes or sleekest makeup. Our habit is hair products, and it’s one we’re starting to break.
Stay Curly,
Julia
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