Closing the Curly Hair Education Gap: Working with Textured Hair

[0:02]

(SHANALIE)  I am excited to talk about this one because I feel like people are so afraid of curly hair or just texture. I love that Janine has created a product that allows us to lean into it and also use it in different ways, more than just the spiral curl that people know from perms.

(JOZ) Yeah, I'm really excited about the conversation as well, just because I don't know if it's taboo or it's something, but it’s not really made priority when speaking of different hairstyles and textures. So I'm really excited to hear what she has to say about this.

(JADE) Definitely exciting. I feel like it's still crazy in 2025, as somebody that has curly hair, to find a stylist who is comfortable working with my hair, to have that phone call conversation that's like, listen, I'm begging you to make sure that whoever touches my hair is comfortable, has done this before, and it’s just crazy that that's still very much so relevant in this day and age.

(DANIEL) Hopefully, this just speaks to a larger shift in our industry around inclusivity and texture and curls.

(SHANALIE) Yeah, whether it's manipulating it to be curly or a blowout, everyone loves a good blowout. That versatility is super important because I have experience firsthand where I go in and I come in with my crazy curls and maybe I do want even that super sleek, snatched look, and I get the triangle hair. And I'm like, okay, it's okay. I'll go fix it at home, you know? And, yeah, I work in the business so, I know what I'm doing. But imagine how often that happens to people, you know? 

(JOZ) Yep. It's definitely happened to me where I'm in the bathroom fixing it right after, like, okay, now it looks good.

(JADE) Fighting tears in the bathroom. Just trying to smooth and smooth and I'm like, I'll just go home and take care of this myself. 

(SHANALIE) Yeah. Funny enough, one of the times at Boulevard that we were doing head shots, I went to one of the random blowout bars to get a quick blowout thinking I could just do that on a lunch break and I was like, mad dash home, fumbling over the keys to get the hair straightener, and Jozwas in the bathroom helping me. We were all like making it happen 'cause it was a disaster. So whether you're going curly or straight, you gotta be able to work with textured hair, you guys come on. So really excited to have this conversation with Janine. 

[2:23]

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(SHANALIE) Janine Jarmin, celebrity stylist and salon owner, founded Curl Cult to help people embrace their natural texture. After seeing the challenges her curly hair clients face and experiencing them herself, she set out to rethink the traditional salon perm. The result: a simple, healthy, and sustainable curl treatment paired with at-home products curls will absolutely love. 

(JANINE) I have textured hair. I've always done textured hair. I've always leaned into doing all types of textures and I was very taken back with how much our industry hasn't supported that.

And not because they don't want to. It's just brands, schools, salons, the education isn't there. And, there's a lot of segmenting where it's like, oh, curly hair is for people of color, or if you have any kind of texture, then we're just gonna smooth it and or curl it with a curling iron. There's a lot of like conform else going on in our industry, and I'm okay. I'm up for that challenge. 

I realized that I thought, ‘Oh, I'm gonna teach everybody how to get pumped on perming and like a gentler, easier, softer way to perm hair and create texture.’ But I found out quickly that wasn't enough. It was also, ‘Oh shoot, you need to know how to cut curly and textured hair.’ You also need to know how to —'cause I have curl supportive products–you need lightweight curl products. And they're like, ‘How do we use them?’ And I'm like, Oh my God, we have to teach all the things. And you know, thankfully, my background is in education for brands So that's been it. 

It's the three-pillar approach of texture creation. So it's a three-pillar approach. It's texture creation and support, whether we're rearranging it, giving it, enhancing it, and everything in between. You know, really breaking outside of the perm box, if you will, of perm isn't just granny curls. It's permanent texture. So what does that look like for your client? Is it somebody who has curly hair here but not up here, and getting it to just be all copacetic together? Is it elongating a curl pattern or rearranging a curl pattern? Is it giving someone a curl pattern so they can wash and go. So that's the texture creation. 

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[5:08]

Second pillar is shape shifting. How are we supporting a haircut for curly, textured hair? Because it's totally different than cutting straight hair. You have to cut three-dimensionally. You can't just hold it out with tension because, yeah, that's when we cry because now it's gonna take nine years to grow our hair back. And that too, these microaggressions of like, I get it. I get why hairdressers don't wanna cut curly hair, 'cause they're like, the last time I did it, that person, you know, put a hex on me because I did it wet and pulled the hair. There just isn't access to, hey, this isn't harder, this is just different, and here's a straightforward approach to how to do it.

And then the other part is styling and supporting it for them at home through products, and how do we diffuse dry? What products do we use, when and why, and how do we apply them? It was a foreign concept for a lot of stylists as I'm teaching them like, oh, you put curly hair products in wet hair, and they're like, Oh my God. But how would they know? That feels crazy. 

(SHANALIE) That's true. There's so many people who like have curly hair themselves Yep. That don't know how to do it, and then they look to their professionals to be that guiding voice and sometimes they don't even know. Yeah. So it goes a long way. Like we think it's like, oh duh. Like you do hair, you should know these things. But no, it's so different 

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[6:38]

(JANINE)  And when. When and how. Unless they have curly hair themselves that they're leaning into, unless they have education that is like designed for curl texture support and all of its intricacies, there's so many opportunities that aren't, aren't even beginning to be explored from the cosmetology level to regular brands.

You know, it's like, oh yeah, we have some curl products thrown in into the arsenal, but it's like aerosol stuff. Like things that you're like, ‘No, you don't.’ I hope to be that brand more than just like, I knew the perm was just the start because that was a big part of it. How do we get texture to be easier for a client instead of trying to always erase it? That's not my goal. I want somebody to be able to lean into it and to have an easier time with it at home and let texture make their hair easier.  But how do we get now hairdressers on board to not think of doing curly and textured hair as a specialty, but as just another tool in their tool belt.

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(JOZ) This was just a taste of everything covered in our full episode. Keep the conversation going on Last Client of the Day, now streaming wherever you get your podcast.

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