In the past month, there has been an uprising in the curly hair community regarding the mega-company, Devacurl. Devacurl is a major producer of curly/wavy hair products, and has recently been put under fire for harmful chemicals in their products that cause hair loss and loss of definition after prolonged usage.

Devacurl started becoming popular several years ago when the natural hair movement started; countless bloggers, YouTubers, and online personalities with curly hair preached the magical effects of Devacurl's wide variety of products. I too became engrossed in the amazing things I was hearing about this brand and the videos I was seeing with beautiful results. I did research online and found many glowing reviews about it, and I was enamored. I purchased the mini curl kit, and I was hooked; the products made my hair look amazing and more defined than it had been ever before. Mind you, I started DevaCurl at the very beginning of my curly hair journey; it was the brand I used to transition, so I did not have too much knowledge about how good it was for my hair.

For the first few months, I loved the effect that DevaCurl had on my hair. I thought it was a holy grail product and thought I would use it forever. I started using it in November 2017 and continued all the way up until October 2018. During the summer of 2018, I started experiencing major hair loss and could not figure out why. I did everything from changing my diet to hair masks and oils; nothing seemed to be working or explaining why my hair was thinning. I went to the dermatologist, who diagnosed me with telogen effluvium, a temporary hair loss condition caused by stress or trauma. I had considered this diagnosis myself many times after research, but it didn't make sense because my stress levels had remained fairly the same throughout 2016,2017 and 2018. I had no choice but to accept my hair loss and hope it stopped after a couple of months. Unfortunately, my wishes were not granted, and my hairloss continued for over two years. To this day I still lose more hair than normal, and my hair is thin and brittle.

I never considered the possibility that Devacurl could be partially responsible for what happened to my hair. I stopped using Devacurl products along with most other curly hair products when my hair stopped thinning to give it a break. My hair seems to be slowly recovering, but there are countless weeks where I will not have a good hair day. I believe my hair is permanently damaged and I don't know how to fix it.