The year was 2017. It was an ordinary day in the life of Gloria Roura (Palafrugell, 1972), and that afternoon it was hairdressing. What should have been a relaxing experience or a purely aesthetic procedure turned into the worst nightmare of his life. “They destroyed my hair and, what’s even worse, they didn’t know how to fix it,” she remembers. There she began her pilgrimage to other hair salons in Barcelona with the same result: no one knew how to resurrect her charismatic curly hair after some disastrous highlights. “I was desperate, really. I needed my hair back, it was my identity. So I had no choice but to start investigating on my own,” he adds. Thanks to the internet, Roura discovered that in the United States, a virtual wave of curly hair empowerment. So she began to follow girls who shared it on their social networks and, above all, those who showed the long and arduous process to get it back. I hadn’t been the only girl curly of the world, victim of a bad experience.
Through his personal Instagram account, as anonymous and modest as anyone else, Roura began to document his own journey. “I posted images and videos of the process of recovering my curls. I also shared tricks and the most appropriate products and treatments for my hair type,” he recalls. Without haste, but without pause, a community ended up being created around the profile that was a direct witness of the transformation of her hair and that has made her the pioneer of the movement. curly in Spain. “We are now almost 90,000 people and counting,” says Roura, still overwhelmed by a success that years ago allowed her to leave her previous job—she graduated in Fine Arts, when she made the leap she was a content manager at the Cerdanyola City Council (Barcelona). — and become a virtual ambassador for brands specializing in curly hair. Until a recurring question from her followers, “Hello Glori, what hair salon curly Do you recommend me?”― It changed his life again.
Roura had been fantasizing for some time about the idea of creating a space curlybut it was difficult for him to take the step. And this was when Sònia Blanch (Barcelona, 1971), an art director with a long career in advertising agencies, came into play. “It took us a year to conceptualize the idea. We wanted to give a different image. In fact, we didn’t even want it to look like a hair salon, we wanted coming here to be an experience in every sense: taking care of the curls, but also taking care of the people,” explains Blanch, who began by advising her childhood friend and She has ended up as a partner in the project.
Indeed, , opened a year ago on the ground floor of a modernist building in Barcelona’s Eixample, breaks with the aesthetics of hair salons thanks to a daring project by the . The result is a space with an undulating and seductive design, bathed in the same terracotta tone as the original paintings on the ceiling and with an elegant combination of materials. “You can’t imagine the number of people who come in to ask what we do here. And when they see that it is a hair salon, they are amazed,” says Blanch.
But Curly Lab is not a conventional hair salon either. “Here we can treat any type of hair, but in its entire spectrum: from wavy. We always cut them dry, this is our star service and we can easily dedicate 40 minutes to it. In addition, for the treatments we use high-quality vegan products. “And the first death of the curl is a poorly done bleaching!” exclaims Roura, who has personally trained the team members with his own method – a team of five stylists currently works -. In fact, there is no better guarantee than your own hair. “We had to take advantage of all the expertise from Gloria, it is visible,” adds her partner and friend, smiling.
but this expertise It goes beyond the technique and health of the hair, it is also about reconciling women and girls with their own image. “Disney movies have done a lot of harm: princesses always have straight hair and, on the other hand, witches have curly hair. That’s why self-acceptance is so important: no matter how hard you try… the curl always wins!” Roura jokes.
The tyranny of straight hair is far from gone, but the movement curly It is gaining ground by leaps and bounds. Celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie or Michelle Obama no longer hide their curly hair after decades trying to fit into a certain beauty stereotype. “More and more women are coming to terms with their curls and are in this transition process, recovering their natural hair,” confirms Blanch. And although the majority of Curly Lab’s clients are women and children, more and more men are coming to the salon. “There are many types of curly hair and some are not so easy to care for and treat, which is why it is so important to get good advice. “Everyone comes out of here with good advice,” says Roura, who still continues to share it on his Instagram account. The thinking minds behind Curly Lab don’t stop: right now they are finalizing the launch of their own hair products, a line of business that will expand little by little. “The first will be a gel to define the curl and set it well. It will be the Holy Grail! But what we want most is for women to fall in love with their curly hair again.” Word from @glorirovi.
