Delilah

Everyone wants those big, soft, bouncy 90s curls like Julia Roberts, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

But too often, we’re ending up with curls that are over-gelled, stiff, crunchy and completely lacking personality.

So how do you get those soft, hydrated, touchable 90s curls without all the crunch?

It’s actually really simple.

1. Let your natural oils do their job.

Your natural oils can be one of your best styling products. Try reducing how often you shampoo and condition, and use a co-wash whenever you can.

Our Delilah Co-wash + Wear gently cleanses while helping your curls retain the natural oils they need for softness, hydration and movement.

2. Choose a cream over a gel or mousse.

We make Delilah curl creams to give curls hydration, definition and softness without over-styling them. You want your curls to have movement and personality, not feel like they’ve been shellacked into place.

3. Refresh with hydration.

Our Delilah Hydro is a water-based hydration spray designed to refresh your curls between washes. A few simple pumps can bring your curls back to life without having to completely rewash and restyle them.

Because great curly hair isn’t about making every curl behave.

It’s about hydration, movement, definition and letting your natural curl pattern do what it does best.

If you have questions about curly hair products, co-washing, curl creams or how to refresh your curls, pop them in the comments.

Melbourne, I’m so excited to be at Ozdare Academy in South Melbourne on Monday 21 September at 10am for Curls Need Therapy Too, my curly cutting + K18 education class.

I’ll be working through three dry-cut curly models from start to finish, showing you exactly how I approach shape, structure and movement when cutting curly hair dry.

And we’ll get into K18 and how proper care and repair can completely change the way you work with curls, and the way your clients experience their hair.

If you’re a hairdresser wanting to sharpen your curly cutting skills or a beginner wanting to learn the basics of curly cutting and understand dry-cutting, this class is for you!

I’ll also show you how to properly care for and repair damaged curls. This is going to be big!

Head to the link in bio to grab your ticket.

If you were a hairdresser in the ’80s or ’90s, before smartphones, online booking and computers took over our lives, you’ll have bloody fond memories of the physical appointment book.

A paper book. A pencil. An eraser.

Because heaven forbid a client wanted to move their appointment after you’d written it in pen. You needed that eraser ready.

And confirming appointments? That meant using an actual telephone attached to the wall by a bloody cord. No mobile phones. No text messages. No automated reminders.

And heaven forbid you wrote the client’s phone number down wrong, because some hairdressers had much more legible handwriting than others.

Then came the big question: are they actually going to show up?

Because if they didn’t, you’d just lost that half-hour appointment and you’d be hiding from your boss hoping they didn’t notice.

But the smartest bit of technology we had was writing the date six weeks ahead in the top right-hand corner of every page.

That way you could quickly flick through the book and rebook everyone for their next appointment.

And keep doing it.

Six weeks after six weeks.

Basically booking them in from now until eternity. Or until they bloody died.

No apps. No notifications. No online booking.

Just a pencil, an eraser, a telephone on the wall and a book full of clients.

If you hairdressed in the ’80s or ’90s, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

What are your memories of the old-school hairdressing appointment book?

Sculpting curly bobs is one of my favourite things to do.

There’s something so meditative about slowing down, dry-cutting and just sculpting the shape until it feels exactly right for the person sitting in your chair.

With curly hair, I love creating bespoke shapes rather than forcing every curl into a formula. Dry-cutting allows me to see how the hair naturally lives, where it wants to move, and how I can build a shape that works specifically for that client.

This is DJ Nance’s beautiful curly bob, a shape we’ve had for a few years now because it just suits her so well. I’ve tucked in a tiny little side fringe too.

I also give away a hot little tip in this video for avoiding graduation and those straggly bits when you’re freehand cutting curly hair.

Have a look. I’ll probably do a whole video on that technique at some stage.

For now, enjoy the sculpting.

100 LITRES. Yep. One hundred litres of Co-wash + Wear.

Today we made the biggest batch of anything we’ve ever made at Delilah, and honestly, we’re pretty excited about it.

We bought a new beautiful big blue tub and very quickly realised that apparently stick blenders come MUCH bigger than we thought they did.

But the reason we’ve had to make 100 litres? You lot can’t get enough of it.

Delilah Co-wash + Wear is our cleansing conditioner made specifically for keeping curls, waves and textured hair clean, soft and hydrated without making your wash routine complicated.

Co-washing is a great option for curly hair because it gives you a gentler, more moisturising way to cleanse between shampoo washes. And unlike simply using a regular conditioner, a proper co-wash is formulated with cleansing ingredients to actually wash the hair.

And yes, we still make it ourselves. Small-batch hair care, made by us in Footscray, in our very own production kitchen.

We love making it. You clearly love using it.

So… 100 litres it is.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR A FRONT OF HOUSE LEGEND

We’re looking for a Client Coordinator to join our Delilah team, with full-time and part-time positions available.

This is so much more than answering phones and booking appointments.

You’ll be the person making sure our clients feel looked after from the very first enquiry, through to booking, arriving at the salon, their experience with us, and that final goodbye.

Basically, you’ll help make the whole Delilah experience feel easy, welcoming and bloody good.

You might have done front of house in a salon before. You might have worked in hospitality. You might have worked in hairdressing in another capacity. Or you might just be ridiculously good with people, organised, switched on and love making someone’s day.

We’re not necessarily looking for someone with years of salon experience. We’re looking for someone with personality, initiative and a genuine love of people.

If that sounds like you, we’d love to meet you.

Send your CV to [email protected]

Let’s chat about simplifying your curl routine.

Somewhere along the way, styling curly hair got really complicated. Layering products, gels, mousses, leave-ins, oils… but it really doesn’t need to be that hard.

I’m going to show you on DJ Nance how to quickly and easily get casual, movable, wearable curls without using too many products or spending too much time styling.

1. Start with co-washing.

Learning how to co-wash can be a game changer for curly hair. A co-wash is a conditioning cleanser that removes product, dirt and buildup while helping to preserve your natural oils.

And your natural oils are some of the best styling products you have. They’re free, they’re already in your hair and your body makes them specifically for you.

I’m not saying don’t shampoo your hair. I’m saying consider shampooing less often and giving your natural oils a chance to do their job: helping your curls look and feel their best.

2. Choose a curl cream over a gel or mousse.

Curl creams can replenish and condition the hair while giving curls what they need to look and feel their best. They can also give you definition and movement without making your hair feel heavily coated in product.

Gels and mousses can absolutely create a great curl, but for some hair types, frequent use can leave the hair feeling dry or create a dependence on lots of styling product.

The goal? Less product. Less time. Better curls.

We make a co-wash and a couple of curl creams if you want to simplify your own routine.

Co-wash + Wear is our co-wash, and Peppermint Cream and Salt Cream are our curl creams.

Hit the link in the video to check them out.

Hairdressers before smartphones, you’ll remember this one.

Back then, being a hairdresser meant being a total all-rounder. Specialising wasn’t really a thing. Whatever walked through your door, you had to be able to do it.

Wedding parties? You better be good at upstyling.
Perms? Yep.
Short cuts, long cuts, kids’ cuts? Absolutely.
Colour corrections, reds, blondes, brunettes? Bring it on.

And somehow you’d have all of it happening at once.

Before Instagram and specialising in one particular type of hair, old-school hairdressers really did have to know a bit of everything.

Were you a jack of all trades, master of none… or were you freaking amazing at everything?

Let’s talk about it.

One thing that’s come full circle from the ’80s and ’90s to now is CURL.

Back then, we celebrated natural texture, frizz and big hair. Curly hair was allowed to be big, wild and completely itself.

Then somewhere along the way, we became much more conservative. We started punishing natural texture, over-styling, over-gelling and trying to control curls instead of celebrating them.

But over the last few years, I feel like we’re finally coming back around.

We’re heading into a wash-and-wear era, and I love it.

Less control. Less perfection. More natural texture, frizz and movement.

Because curly hair doesn’t need to be changed. It just needs to be understood.