Anna Dassy (@menta_ycanela) tells us what the hair coaching process meant to her, a path of awareness, acceptance and self-love. We hope you enjoy her testimony as much as we did.nos cuenta lo que significó para ella el proceso de Coaching capilar, un camino de conciencia, aceptación y amor a sí misma. Esperamos que disfrutéis de su testimonio tanto como lo hemos hecho nosotras.

Love au naturel

"Sometimes, the most seemingly superficial acts can bring about big changes and learning from them. 

I, like most curly women, grew up thinking that my hair was something "not pretty" that had to be tamed and changed, that the elegant thing to do was to have straight hair. And so I was always straightening my hair, and at a certain point I also started getting highlights and bleaching it. I remember when I started having straightening treatments I thought it was the best money I had ever spent. But the reality was that my hair was getting duller and duller, with less and less shine and absolutely static, and I was becoming more and more a slave to expensive treatments where I spent hours and hours literally scorching my hair. The pressure to hide my natural hair meant I had a really hard time when it grew out and its true nature came to the surface.

When my first daughter was born, with her beautiful, naturally curly hair, I looked at her and was enraptured admiring her curls, her movement and her vitality, and wished that she would always enjoy her hair. And the reality hit me in the face: "what will my daughter think of her hair if her mother is always straightening and bleaching it?" The pressure that was suffocating me started to become unbearable. I needed to stop punishing myself and my hair for the way it was, and I urgently needed to start accepting myself first, and loving myself second.

So I discovered Henna Morena and I was amazed by the way it claims and takes care of the essence of people, and from there enhance the real beauty. First I tried to buy some products and use them on my own, but although I noticed an improvement in my hair, I felt a bit lost and why not, alone in this path that went beyond the merely aesthetic. So I decided to ask for personalised advice. They answered me immediately and after the survey I had my first meeting with Mari Luz.

Now I laugh but I remember that at the first meeting I was even a little embarrassed to show my hair, but Mari Luz's affection and professionalism made me feel at ease from the first moment, and her clear way of explaining how hair works, what it needs and how natural products work fascinated me, it was pure alchemy! Talking to her, telling her how I had always felt, seeing that she understood me, that she accompanied me, that she explained to me from knowledge (her hair is similar to mine and it is SO NICE that she encouraged me a lot), all that made me feel encouraged, that made me strong to fight to recover a love that I had denied myself for too long.

On our second appointment I had cut off a large part of my hair and had done the first batch of treatments he recommended, I felt absolutely GREAT, I loved being able to dedicate those moments to blending, feeling the plants, noticing how they joined my hair and cleaned it, treated it, almost healed it, it was pure witchcraft, a brutal sensation. By the third appointment I was totally launched and I had cut -even more! - my hair, I had also started to nourish it and colour it with henna, and I was fascinated.

Me, who swore and swore that I would never cut my hair because "it was impossible to tame", who said that straightening my hair was the best thing that ever happened to me who said that straightening my hair was the best thing that had ever happened to me and who let myself go when I was assured that blonde looked great on me (even though I didn't really think so). That same me was there, with her curly hair in the sun and laughing out loud when my friends looked at me in amazement because they didn't recognise me.

It has been the first time I have treated my hair with respect, with affection, not demanding it to behave in a certain way to comply with an aesthetic canon but to let it be, on its own terms and with the best natural care I could find. I have started to treat my hair the way I want to treat myself, because although it seems frivolous, it is a great metaphor for self-love and self-care.

Thank you Mari Luz for accompanying me so much and so beautifully, thank you for laughing together, for opening your heart to me, for the patience and affection you have shown in every call, even when my little ones were demanding your attention, for the immense wisdom and for starting with me on this path that I assure you I will not leave. Sometimes I look at my old photos and I see myself as beautiful, I'm not going to lie, but the beauty, strength and confidence I have now is something that transcends far beyond any photo. Now I see and embrace myself with so much more love, and that's something we all deserve".

Anna Dassy