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Curly Kella

Out of the mouths of babes: “My 5-Year old daughter helped me become my more authentic self!”

For every curly girl, there is a story. A tale of torturous years spent in battle with the frizz. Trying everything under the sun to tame wild unruly tresses only to be beaten by them time and time again. The straightening iron was an ally. The blustery weather a dastardly enemy. Oh the shame, oh the frustration oh the agony of bending your curls to your straightening will! Then you hear a voice, one that was always there, but is now rhythmically pulsating in your head pleading “Enough Let me be ME!”. And then the rest is history. Your curls are freed. But what if that voice just happened to be from your most precious of people in your life? For anaesthetist and Mum Upeka Karaiskakis (née Ranasinghe) that is exactly what happened. After years of indecision shuttling back and forth between curls and non-curls, it was her little five-year-old daughter, Aayla, who inspired her to commit to curldom for good! But let Upeka tell you how it was in her own words…

December 3, 2020 by Rad

Curly Kella

The X-Curl Factor – Acurlerfulmind meets Italy’s No. 1 Curly-Hair stylist

They say no two curls are the same. Well the same goes for curly-hair salons. I’ve been to a few; from the bohemian Unruly Curls in London’s Ladbroke Grove to the playfully surreal in Melbourne’s Neel Loves Curls. And now there’s a hair salon that gives curls the real glamour treatment. During my Italian Sabbatical I booked an appointment with Fulvio Tirrico, top hairdresser and founder of ILoveRiccio (Italian for “I Love Curls”), a stylishly decked out salon headquartered in Milan. It’s been in operation for a mere five years but is so well known that it is now the country’s curly-hair hot-spot. Fulvio himself is a household name: he is among the world’s top curly hair stylists – alongside the likes of Lorraine Massey and Ouidad and is the brains behind the X-Curl Cut– a patented method of cutting natural hair. The ILoveRiccio brand also extends to its own line of products and hair dyes- (check out my product review later on). So with accolades such as this, and a hairstyle that is 6 months old, I jump at the chance at putting my curls up for the chop and find out what puts the “X” in the X-Curl cut.

August 5, 2020 by Rad

Curly Kella

Curl Interrupted!

Loving your curls is about loving who you are…or is it the other way around? Whichever way it was for you, embracing your natural hair is about staying true to your identity and no-one knows that better than my next admission into the Curly Kella Hall of Fame. Meet 25-year old Mishelle Sandali; an Australian-born Sri Lankan working as a radiographer in Melbourne. We’ve been Instagram buds for a good part of a year, but our friendship goes beyond the world wide web. We are curl comrades in arms. Despite being both beset with hormonal issues that have affected our curls, and relatives who weren’t exactly exalting over our frizz, we’re proud Sri Lankan kellas with a love for our desi DNA. She’s been curl-ready for little over a year and wants you all to know that championing curls was all about reclaiming her South-Asian roots- hair and all!

March 20, 2020 by Rad

Curly Kella

All Hail! Curly Kella meets the King of Curls Down Under: Neel Morley

P ics by Gretchen Oris-Chong @Eightcorners

How far would you travel for a good curly-hair cut? Answer: 17000 km. That is the distance I covered from London to Melbourne where Australia’s king of curls, Neel Morley, is sovereign. Since a chance meeting in 2013, I have followed him religiously on social media, not only because he rules over curl cuts but because he truly loves them! The Aussie press can’t get enough of him either; some want to big up his reputation as a curly-hair stylist, others focus on his entrepreneurial talent and then there are those who are hyped up about his quirky fashion sense when he turns up at the Melbourne Cup. So upon going Down Under, I had to book myself in for a signature cut at his funky salon, aptly named, Neels Loves Curls and grab a word with the mane monarch himself.

April 23, 2018 by Rad

Curly Kella

“My Curls are a ‘F*** You’ to Indian guys who like women with straight hair!”

Long before I flirted with the frizz, there was one kella who had nailed her curly look; Anjali Tandon- my sister’s best friend’s sister. Compared to the long silky locks of my Indian peers (the archetypal look of an Asian babe), her look was completely the opposite; short, choppy, wild, streaked with coppers and reds. In truth before the hype, celebrity role models, magazine beauty spreads, and natural hair blogs, Anjali was my original inspiration and thanks to her I was able to roll with my own unruly curls.

But little did I know how much her curl style allowed her to overcome a lack of confidence and eventually empower her to resist the cultural stereotype. In her own words, Anjali tells me all about her journey; from an unsure, timid girl blindly wrestling with a wild head of frizz, to a young woman revelling in curl confidence.

July 31, 2017 by Rad