prioritizing caretaking over self-care 

My entire adult life, I've been taking care of people—I became a mother 10 days after I turned 20 years old. Being a mother of so many children, I called them my basketball team, they always took priority. I never really got that chance to be young, and now I've got multiple grandchildren. When I think about making time for myself, it's a little daunting.

hair as a source of expression and joy

I've always liked it when I have (as Alfredo says) dimension. I like having highlights and lowlights. Sometimes I would dye the bottom part of my hair a really vibrant color, like blue. It was a way for me to express myself but still be business up top and fun beneath.

Our family has always expressed ourselves with color, style, things like that. My youngest daughter dyed her hair a different color every single year, and during her senior year, she dyed it all the colors that she’d ever had in one sitting—we called her “Skittles”!

My father loved my hair straight. He was bedridden, so occasionally when I wanted him to get whatever joy he could out of life, I’d straighten my hair and he’d tell me how good it looked. As his health got worse, he stopped noticing, so I no longer straightened my hair. My routine changed bit by bit until I wasn't doing anything anymore. 

restoring healthy hair with K18 routines

I was so happy to get my healthy hair back. After five days of using K18, I started seeing my natural curls again. I hadn't seen them for months, and I missed them. It took two days for the crunchiness to go away, and five days for the curls to start reappearing. My hair was in really bad shape.

I alternated between detox shampoo with the leave-in molecular repair mask to repair and strengthen, and DAMAGE SHIELD shampoo + conditioner to protect from further damage. On mask days, I waited four minutes for the K18PEPTIDE™ to reverse my hair damage before smoothing the frizz with the molecular repair hair oil.  

I could see and feel the difference right away! My hair started losing the crunchiness that it had before, which was the first thing that I noticed. It was absolutely wonderful.

adding touchable volume with AstroLift™

AstroLift™ is amazing! My hair is thick and heavy, so it tends to go flat. Having something that gives me volume but isn't weighed down is great. Sometimes the way other volume sprays work is by adding physical texture to your hair, which can make it feel crunchy or sticky. I like that AstroLift™is lightweight. 

I also love that I can use it when my hair is dry or wet—I've tried both ways and I get the same results regardless. So if I wash my hair, I can apply it out of the shower and if it's a wake-up-and-go day, I can use it on dry hair and get the same effect.

a new chapter of making time for herself

It’s going to be weird not taking care of anyone full-time, but I’m not completely done being a caretaker. I have a job in the mental health field, so I am going to be helping people on a day-to-day basis with anything that they need: from life skills to taking them to their appointments. I'm still going to be taking care of people, but when I get home, I'll be able to put that aside and think about myself for a change. That's what I'm looking forward to!