Learning to Like Your Whole Self

How often does a song stop you in your tracks? These moments of lyrics reverberating through the soul are both special & rare.

But how does this relate to hair?

While working at our local radio station, our Founder heard one line from a song that seemed to have chosen her as inspiration behind what she would create for all of us to share.

Here is how she presented that moment in a blog post from 2012: 

As many of you know, I do a weekly radio show on my local (awesome) station, KHUM. It’s a free-form station not beholden to the likes of Clear Channel or … anyone, actually. The DJs pick what they play and that makes for an amazing variety of tunes.

A few weeks ago I was listening to my buddy Mike, the mid-day DJ and heard a song with a lyric that literally made me stop what I was doing and look at my phone in amazement. 

The line was, “I like the things about me that I once despised.”

OMG, right?!

I immediately texted Mike and said, “Uh… what, pray tell, is this song that is so clearly the anthem for Curlies EVERYWHERE?!”

Turns out it was Mavis Staples, and it’s a song called "I Like The Things About Me". 

Turns out, the song was written by Mavis’ dad, “Pops” Staples. Learning that made me love it even more, since I’m super close to my dad, and I love that this song and message have been passed down through their family, much like I feel like accepting my curls has been passed down from MY dad.

I don’t mean to imply that YOU have ever despised YOUR curls. I just know that a lot of the Curlies I talk to did, and now they don’t. And the freedom of that is not to be understated. The confidence that comes from fully accepting ourselves permeates many aspects of our lives and is why our tagline of You Have The Right To Remain Curly is so powerful.

It’s also why this song is so powerful, in my opinion. Music is not just the background to our lives, filling the silence while we answer email or cook dinner. It gets in our soul and reminds us of how we want to be. Of WHO we want to be. Maybe you’re not there yet. But I believe that songs like this with messages like this have the power to move us forward.

I, for one, DO like the things about me that I once despised.

I’m stoked that this song can serve as a reminder of that. :)

Every now and then we get caught up in life and take for granted the wonderful things that happen to us on a regular basis. The things that form and shape the way that we are and the path that has led us to loving ourselves.

Our Founder, Jessica McGuinty, found inspiration and validation for her life's work around every corner and loved to share her “glimmers” with us, her community. We hope that the way that Jess looked at life reminds you all that we should embrace who we are and celebrate who we have become not in spite of, but because of, the adversity it took to get here.

After all, “You Have the Right to Remain Curly!”