This blog post was written by Summer Jordan, a customer turned friend with type 4a hair & a really beautiful soul. Take it away Summer! We're so glad you're here & that we made the best conditioner bar for your beautiful type 4 hair! -Kate
Told by Summer Jordan
I’ve come to realize that my hair journey and the styles I’ve worn throughout my life tells me so much about where I was in my life, I think we can all relate on that.
We’ll bypass my childhood hairstyles and fast forward to pre-teen and onward. . . My hair has always been very thick, type 4A hair that up until a few years ago I didn’t realize had a pretty decent curl pattern (with some help from the right hair products, but we’ll get to that shortly).
At the age of 10, I remember being taken to a hair salon to chemically straighten my hair.
It took 2 boxes of the relaxer kits to cover all of my hair. The experience was uncomfortable -- my scalp stung, I didn’t like the smell of the chemical-laced cream being combed through my hair and I distinctly remember being told by the hairdresser that:
“beauty is pain.”
Somehow, those three words stuck with me for many years to follow.
I grew up believing that in order to feel beautiful and to fit-in, that I had to wear my hair straight.
I eventually got to a point a few years ago, where I was exhausted of the lengthy ritual it took to straighten my hair and decided to go natural.
My journey going natural has been a lot of trial and error and time spent watching YouTube on how to style curly hair. One of the biggest struggles was finding the right hair products, especially products that would be good for my hair and help it recover from the years of heat damage.
As I’ve come to understand my hair better and what works for it, I’ve also become invested in finding products that would be good for the environment too.
Usually you would have to choose one over the other – either a hair product in thick plastic packaging covered in plastic wrap, etc. (pretty much an inception of plastic). Or an eco-friendly product that made claims to be good for your hair and “works on all hair types”, but results indicate otherwise. You end up with hair that is tangled and parched leaves you thinking:
“for all hair types, my a**.”
The thought of having both function and sustainability in one seemed like a dream. . . until I came across Dip. Beautiful, recyclable packing for a product that delivered as promised.
Dip deserves a slow clap moment, because it’s about time that there’s a quality, sustainable product that is good for your hair and the environment.
Let’s keep in mind that until recently, sustainable beauty was not very colorful (literally and figuratively) in how it was marketed. Aside from crunchy packaging that came in fifty shades of beige, there was a lack of diversity in the faces and hair textures we saw representing these beauty brands.
To not feel seen is an easy way to feel excluded from the conversation and to feel that the product is not meant for you.
Definitely struggled with that over the years and am enjoying seeing a little more diversity in the beauty industry. I’d also like to take another moment of appreciation for Dip including a breakdown of hair types on the website for those who may not know there’s more to explaining a hair type than just describing the texture.
There’s a complete range from Type 1A (fine, straight) to Type 4C hair (curls and coils).
Here’s a brief breakdown of the hair types:
TYPE 1 (1A, 1B, 1C): Straight hair – ranging from pin straight to a slight bit of a wave. Overall manageable and easy to maintain. May be prone to greasy roots.
TYPE 2 (2A, 2B, 2C): Wavy hair – fine, loose waves to thicker, borderline ringlet waves. A manageable hair type that may be prone to frizz.
TYPE 3 (3A, 3B, 3C): Curly hair – varying degrees of curliness from relaxed ringlets to tighter curls (think Kirsten Dunst in Interview with the Vampire). This hair type requires extra moisture to maintain it.
TYPE 4 (4A, 4B, 4C): Coily hair – very tight curls can coils that can look like an S-shape or Z-shape when stretched out. Lots of volume and prone to shrinkage (when hair dries and curls shrink, giving the appearance of shorter hair)
This is something rarely spoken about or broken down by hair care companies and I love that Dip goes there.
With as many hair care brands are there are, let’s hope that more continue to include and discuss the varying degrees of hair type between the range of straight and curly. Let’s continue to acknowledge the nuances and the needs of Type 4C or 2A hair and so on.