It’s Sarah’s first day at a new job, and the last thing that’s on her mind is her hair. But as she’s rushing out the door, she catches a glimpse of her reflection in the glass. She raises a hand to her cloud of tight, shiny curls growing this way and that, and all of a sudden it feels like they’re too… too much? Too obvious? A distraction?
Well, none of these are her thoughts, but she’s not seeing herself through her eyes today. Naturally, she’s seeing herself through her new employer’s eyes (or imagining that she can). It’s really a memory from her last job that’s bothering her. Her previous colleagues never really said anything out loud, but she always noticed them noticing. Staring at her hair when they thought she wasn’t looking, visibly resisting the urge to reach out and touch.
A thousand thoughts are racing through her mind – will they think it’s messy? unprofessional? – when she’s just here to do the job she was hired to do…
Sarah pivots in the doorway, back to her bedroom where she grabs a hair tie, sweeps up her curls into a tight bun and slicks back the flyaways with a little gel.
When she arrives at the new job, her supervisor takes her on a tour around the office and introduces her to her new colleagues, and as she steps into one of the workspaces she beholds a woman a little older than herself, with a warm smile and a head of frizzy curls flying in all directions. Messy, chaotic, beautiful.
Sarah can’t help but feel a flood of relief and think – ANOTHER ONE! – as they shake hands.
Now, Crolles doesn’t claim to be the antidote to all external pressures, looks or comments. But we do think that this little anecdote from our product tester speaks volumes about the lived, day to day experience of those with textured hair. Depending on how you look at it, having textured hair can range from a time-consuming burden that causes overthinking and self-consciousness, to a means of proud self expression and bold, natural beauty. Crolles – both our shampoo bar and our community – is here to help slide the scale a little more towards the latter end.
Some time spent worrying and overthinking the presentation of your hair – making it seem less with products and maintenance – is inevitable in the Western cultures where textured hair is sometimes not the norm. And Crolles isn’t here to judge: you should feel free to style your hair however you like. But that’s just it: the freedom to do whatever with your hair – to shake all worries and external perceptions out of it, and channel your focus into what really matters to you.