Change — a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many an individual. Even if you consider yourself a generally open-minded person, at some point in your life, you’ve actively resisted even the slightest deviation or departure from the familiar confines of your comfort zone.
Nowhere in our lives is this apprehension more prevalent than as it pertains to our appearance. Most of us spend a great deal of our adolescence cultivating our look, seeking to discover our style and tailoring it to fit our personality. Once we feel like we’ve nailed it, very rarely do we mess with what we’ve deemed a proven formula; God knows all of the phases and trials we had to go through to just get this far!
In that sense, Karen H. is truly someone to be admired. After all, you don’t leave your birthplace on the south side of Chicago and move to Minnetonka, Minnesota if you’re not at least mildly comfortable with the concept of change. And you certainly don’t pack up that home after ten years and scoot your roots down to Houston, Texas unless you’re downright malleable.
Karen’s approach to her hair fosters a similar easy-come-easy-go attitude. Over the course of her life, she’s always been just as prone to wearing a shoulder-length style as she is to rocking a TWA. A child of the 60s, Karen was more than at-home embracing the natural, free-spirited hairstyles of the time throughout her high school and college days. It wasn’t until she graduated that she explored relaxing her hair.
“I got married, and I let my hair grow. Then I cut it, and my husband just totally flipped out!” Karen laughingly recalled. “Which was weird, because I had incredibly short hair when I met him – but he acted as though he had never seen it before!”
Moving into the blistering climate and humidity of Houston, a dramatic shift from the chillier Northern midwest temperatures she’d braved her entire life, prompted that cut in the interest of beating the heat. But it was also where Karen would rediscover her natural curls.
“One day after washing and spraying leave-in conditioner in my hair, I noticed my hair would always curl up,” Karen said. “So instead of wrapping my hair and letting it dry, I let the curls stay.”
“Unbeknownst to me was the fact that the man who styled my hair wasn’t putting that much relaxer in it, and I soon came to notice that I really could live without relaxer – and that hair stylist!”
Shortly thereafter, with large thanks due to her new stylist, Karen would learn that applying heat to her hair wasn’t doing it any favors, either. So she cut it even closer – much more than she ever had before.
“It was kind of a shock at first,” Karen remembered. “But then I got home, put some product in it…and it was like ‘Wow, this is wonderful!’”
Enter Uncle Funky’s Daughter.
Karen discovered our Good Funky Stuff via the original boutique that was open in Houston around 2011.
“I thought the name was unique and was pleasantly surprised to find an excellent selection of natural hair products – the most I have ever seen in one place. After trying them, I was pretty much sold.”
Karen has tinkered with the majority of the UFD lineup, but lists the butters among her favorites.
“I like the Supercurl, Extra Butter and Thirsty Curls because they keep my hair soft and shiny,” Karen says. “The Supercurl works better when my hair is wet. But for my normal, day-to-day routine, the Extra Butter works fine.”
All in all, within a schedule that includes everything from a 4:30 AM swim session four times a week, to volunteer work with her family, Karen is thankful for her low maintenance and manageable style. While her hair is a bit longer now, she still credits the freedom and flexibility she has to her being natural, and encourages all women to be comfortable with the idea of being unafraid to try new styles.
“Life is too short to have boring hair,” she advises. “If you don’t love your ‘do, nobody else will!”
