Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please be aware that for some reason Amazon has not created a new page for the updated second edition of this book, therefore any pre-December 2010 reviews will not take into account the improvements made in the updated version. I have both the first and second editions of this book. As a curly haired curl with straight-haired parents, it wasn't until I bought the first edition of this book that I had any idea how to properly care for my hair. The main features of Massey's method are not using sulfate-based shampoos or any products containing silicone, styling the hair by scrunching with non-drying gel after washing, and preferably towel and air-drying the hair, or at least attaching a diffuser to your hair dryer. There is more information than just that in the book, including recipes for home-made hair products and specifics for how to cut and colour curly hair, but that is the skeleton of her approach. Although the hair-cutting information is meant for stylists, when my hair was very long I used it to cut my own hair and gave myself the best haircut I've ever had. Since using her methods I get a lot more compliments on my hair. While the basics of the approach remain the same, the second edition of the book represents a significant increase in the amount of information shared. The book is about a centimeter taller and thirty pages longer and the formatting in the second edition (ex. smaller font and less empty space) means each page has more information. There is less silly "fluff" features (although some remains) and in a very helpful addition, a short 25 minute DVD means you can see the techniques demonstrated. The second edition has new information for curly haired men and children, and about grey hair. In addition to the introduction to Massey's haircutting technique, she provides guidelines for trimming your own hair, and at least two of the "curly girl" profiles explicitly discuss women acting as their own hairdresser. I suspected that since Massey now markets Devachan hair products, she might do a hard sell in the book and remove the homemade recipes. Instead she doesn't mention them a single time, and she has increased the number of recipes in the book. Most importantly, she has expanded her system of curl types from three (essentially waves, loose curls and tight curls) to seven different categories (S'wavy, Wavy, Cherub, Botticelli, Corkicelli, Corkscrew, and Fractal or Zizag) and has completely reworked the "African American hair" chapter from the first book (which revealed she had very little experience with black women's hair) to something much more satisfying. I would not recommend the first book to women of African origins with very tight curls, but I think this new edition definitely has a lot to offer. I also prefer the tone of the new edition. The first book was a strange combination of strident and goofy, and almost felt like a hair-centric polemic written for tween girls. Because everything was written in extremes -- like ALL wavy hair is like this and NO curly hair is -- I got extremely confused trying to fit myself into her hair-typing system. Many characteristics of my hair meant it was wavy, apparently, despite the fact that I had ringlets on my head and my hair curled even when cut down to be two inches long. I have since realized that few people fit exactly into one specific category of hair texture -- most curlies have multiple textures or tightness of curls over their head. It's worthwhile reading the descriptions of all of the hair types and trying techniques from each one to see what works for you -- although the seven category system makes it much easier to make sense of what's going on, and what to try first. My only real complaints about the new edition is that despite there being four specific hair care routines described in the book (one for Wavies, one for Botticelli, Corkicelli and Corkscrew, one for delicate Cherub curls and one for Fractal or Zigzag) Massey made the questionable decision on the DVD to only demonstrate two of these routines. The DVD content includes sort of useless demonstrations for how to prepare simple hair-care recipes, and people talking about their hair. Given that I appear to be closest to the "Cherub" hair type, I would have loved to see the techniques described in the book - which I'm not sure I completely understand based on the text - demonstrated on video. This exclusion is sort of illustrative of a larger problem in the book that certain hair types strongly dominate in the pictures, hairstyles, and demonstrations - notably Botticelli, Corkicelli and Corkscrew. Although there is something for everyone, people with different hair types might be frustrated to not be more represented in the book. Similarly, folks who are not new to caring for curly hair might be frustrated that there isn't more information here - while this is great for beginners, there are lots of different techniques and perspectives which can be found on the Naturally Curly website, for example about dew points, hair porosity, hair care ingredients, and styling techniques like "plopping."