Julia Salvia on Embracing Her Curls
There was a moment as a teenager when I caught a glimpse of how curly my hair was.
I said to myself in the mirror , “oh that’s pretty I guess”, and continued sectioning my hair to straighten it. No one ever taught me how to style my hair, and straight hair (I’m talking pin straight hair) was how the popular girls wore their hair in school. Straight hair was just the style- it didn’t seem like there were any other options. and if there were, wearing my hair in it’s curly waves wasn’t one of them.
It took a few years (and a lot of heat damage) to really look at my natural hair in the mirror and love it. Because honestly, how can you love something when you don’t know how to take care of it? When you don’t know how to give it the love it deserves? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s tough.
So I gave my hair (and myself of course) the love she deserved- the love she always deserved. The labor of learning to love yourself; like trying different products to see what works or new styles to see what inspires is just the surface. And the surface is important too but it’s the choice in taking that step that makes the difference.
This might be my routine now, but just like me (and my hair) it’ll change. And when we change, even just a little, we have the opportunity to choose to love ourselves all over again.
Self-love has been a huge part of my journey on this earth, and I’ve come to learn that self-love is truly all of the facets of you. It’s your hair when you’ve just gotten out of bed, the way it lays after a sweaty MARGO’S workout; it’s every way that it can be styled and every way that it’s looked and felt each day from the moment you were born to today and all the way as you continue your journey.
Some days, you’re going to look in the mirror and struggle to like what you see. Other days, you’ll be soaking in compliment after compliment. It’s on those difficult days when it’s most important to redirect how you speak to yourself. But I promise those days get easier when you choose to listen to your body’s needs, create space for all facets of who you are, and explore new ways to love yourself more- like creating a hair routine that embraces your natural hair.
So next time you look in the mirror, what are you gonna say?
Julia Salvia is the creator and founder behind
The Self Love Archives, a multi-platform brand to encourage acceptance, positivity, and of course-self love. You can follow her on instagram, tiktok, and listen to her podcast, The Self Love Archives on spotify. She will be hosting BLOOM, an immersive self-love event this September (save $10 with code: MARGOS10) or you can catch her at MARGO’S, in the Downtown Freehold studio.