As part of my preparations for the July Lifestyle feature on curly hair, I got to interview one of my heroes: Lorraine Massey, a legendary curly girl, hairstylist, entrepreneur, author, and even a socio-political agitator of sorts. I first learned of Massey circa 2002—that’s when one of my gal pals passed along her then-new book, Curly Girl. Part manifesto, part beauty manual, it was the first time I’d encountered someone who felt as isolated as I did about my unruly locks. It also marked the end of my daily shampoos, as well as a new era for curl self-acceptance.

As a sidenote, be sure to catch this video preview of the article.

Returning to the original subject, and more on Massey! She also owns New York City’s Devachan salons, for curly girls only! More recently, she helped to launch a national line of curl-friendly hair-care products. Behold, a series of embarrassing questions for Lorraine Massey:

So I’m a girl with corkscrew curls living here in Minnesota, and I have to say—it feels rather lonely at times, not unlike the London experiences you describe in your book. What’s with that? Why did you, as a curly girl, feel so alone?
There’s no curriculum for curly girls. I’m a hairdresser, so everything I was trained to do had nothing to do with what’s on top of my head. . . . If you go into Wal-mart, it’s flat-iron, flat-iron, flat-iron! Everywhere there’s flat irons! . . . Millions of hairdressers on this planet, and we cannot find bloody hairdressers! So I’m updating my book, and this has what it’s resorted to—there’s a whole section on how to cut your own curly hair.

What do you suggest to curly girls who aren’t comfortable cutting their own hair? What might they say to their hairdressers?
On the phone, what you should do is say: “Listen, I’ve got curly hair, and my hair is so different when it’s wet. Is there anyway someone can cut my hair when it’s dry?” . . . As curly girls, we have to demand this change!

Dawn Schifsky, your Minnesota-based director of business development for DevaCurl, tells me there’s research that proves men prefer curls. Have you heard about such a thing?
Well, Most of my clients get to me through their husbands. Some of the women will say my husband loves me with curly hair, but I don’t like my curls.

What do you do say to clients who want to straighten their hair?
I only take committed curly girls.

What else in the way of curl evangelizing?
I have a little Devachan Facebook page. And then on my own personal page, I’m a little bit more hardcore, so basically I post things like: This is what curly girls look like when they try to straighten their hair on a rainy day!
 
Ouch! How does your own considerably kinky hair fare?
The truth is with curly hair, if you have been hyper-hydrating it for a long while, you’re going to find out that curls won’t be reaching out to the atmosphere when there’s humidity or rain. . . . I went running in the rain this morning. My hair was slightly moist when I got back home—it looked like a willow tree. So I put some clips at the root; I put in some [DevaCurl] Set It Free, and I grazed it. I’m still waiting for it to dry, but it’s looking really good. That’s because I’ve been looking after my hair for a while now.