Curly Hair

Whenever I open up a magazine or go to a hair salon, I encounter one major problem; no one seems to have any advice about curly/wavy hair except "how to straighten your hair". I have never had my hair cut "properly" it seems-- no one knows how to work with caucasian curly/wavy hair. I end up with chopiness or cow licks, or the hairstylist cuts my hair as if it's straight. I've resorted to cutting my own hair in a longish shaggy layered style, and luckily I can get away with it to a point, since it curls up and no one can see the unevenness. Nearly all the styles today are for straight-as-a-bone hair. Any curly hair styles I see or hear about require perms, rollers or curling irons (synthetically curly hair and naturally curly hair are two different things). I refuse to spend hours straightening or curling my hair (curly hair is brittle enough without being f#$@ed around with). The few hairstyles for naturally curly hair require extremely curly thick hair (like Felicity), and if I understand correctly, most curly hair is actually thin.I think the hair care and fashion industry completely ignores anyone who doesn't have caucasian straight hair. I've had to shop around millions of times until I could find the "right conditioner" that wouldn't leave my hair all frizzy and strange. I've finally gotten a handle on my hair by experimenting by myself (I guess the trick to keep natural curls from going crazy is to use a good conditioner and not brush them or comb them). I commiserate with other curly haired people who have found out the same "rules" on their own, without any outside help. I can't imagine haveing african american hair-- it seems like there is always this constant pressure on african american women to straighten their hair (which is completely unfair, since they have extremely brittle hair).