A Curly Hair Specialist On Why More Australian Brands Need To Cater To Textured Hair

Find Out Why More Brands In Australia Need To Cater To Textured Hair.

By Shilpa Bhim

Listen up Australia, it’s time for you to embrace your beautiful, natural, textured hair!

Why? Because whether you’re rocking waves, curls, coils or a whole range of texture you are beautiful just the way you are, girl.

To add to that truth, around 65 per cent of women have naturally curly or wavy hair. Australia is a diverse nation made up of First Peoples, and people of European, Asian, Indian, African and Middle Eastern Descent. All of that diversity, and peoples’ personal preferences, meaning we are all rocking different hair colours, lengths and textures.

So with a whole range of hair types all over Australia, there must be a ton of brands and stylists catering to wavy, curly and textured hair across the country right?! Not quite. Turns out Australia has a long way to go to support the full range of hair textures and types.  We recently caught up with Rebecca (Bec) Gauci, curly hair specialist and hairstylist extraordinaire from Rizo Loco Salon.

Bec gave us the low down on curly and textured hair in Australia, and how brands can do better. Keep reading to find out more!

Why specialise in curly hair?

“Having curly hair myself, I had many bad hair cuts and experiences,” says Bec.

She shares that when searching for answers on how to style her hair, she came across the Curly Girl Method and learned that many hairdressers were cutting curls dry. 

“[This was] a technique unheard of to me and rare to find in Australia. This is where my passion began.”

Have you seen an upward trend in more women embracing their natural hair?

Bec highlights that in the past year to so, she has definitely seen a massive boom in the natural hair trend. “I feel that it has slowly gotten more popular as the Curly Girl Method has become more common.”

So what’s driving this upward trend?

Bec puts this down to the fact that people aren’t wanting to spend lots of time on their hair and instead are opting for a more relaxed approach to beauty and how they look.

America with its diversity and a large African American community is at the forefront of curly hair product and style inventions. What can Australia learn from it?

“Australia has a long way to go for curly hair education,” says Bec. “This year will be the first year we will be getting proper educators travelling to Australia to teach curls.”

She also notes that the hairdressing industry as a whole would greatly benefit from more education on products, ingredients and techniques that will benefit curls, all of which America already has. 

What would you like to see more in the Australian curl market? 

Overall, Bec wants to see more hairstylists understanding how to style curls. “Clients should be able to leave hair salons feeling like they’ve had their hair “done” and not having dripping wet or frizzier hair than when they came in!”

In addition to stylists better understanding curly wavy and textured hair, Bec also wants people to play and have more fun with their hair.

“I would also love to see more fun hair accessories, head wraps, scarves, hair clips all geared to textured hair!”

In summary, we’ve come far but we’ve still got a long way to go when it comes to textured hair, Australia. Of course, with more people embracing their natural hair, the market should start catering more to our beautiful and diverse hair types. In the meantime, check out Damn Gina’s range of curly hair accessories to help keep your curly, wavy or textured hair looking fresh!

Shilpa is a freelance beauty, health and travel writer from Melbourne, Australia. When she’s not writing, she’s out and about exploring places around Australia and the world. You can keep up with her adventures over at @skb.ontherun and check out her latest articles here.

Image source: Rebecca Gauci