WELCOME, WORLD!

Welcome to Keep Me Curly! Katie, Steph and the girls are all really excited to start talking hair with you! We have so many fun things lined up for these first few weeks, but we figured in this first post we would fill you in on how we have come to love curly hair! Please be sure to follow us here, through an RSS feed, on twitter or facebook (or allof the above!) so that you don't miss out on anything we have coming up (like our first giveaway!)

Katie's journey to this website started with the adoption of her three oldest children from Liberia, Africa in 2005. She quickly realized that she was going to need some help with how to care for their hair. She found a wonderful Yahoo group of other adoptive mothers (check our links page) where she read, studied pictures, and asked questions. After some time, patience and practice, she was off and running! Katie became very adept at many types of hairstyles, and the Yahoo group moms started asking her how she did them all. She found that making videos was much easier than trying to explain styles in writing, and, luckily, her husband obliged as cameraman. Soon her videos on youtube began to get hundreds, and then thousands of views. After her four years of research, trial, and error, her skill and knowledge was attracting a following.

Meanwhile, in mid-2006, Stephanie was awaiting the go-ahead to pick up her

new daughter from Haiti and had also joined this Yahoo group. Katie and the wonderful ladies there talked about these nifty little doodads that they called "hair snaps" but they were very hard to find retail. Many moms on the Yahoo group lived in rural areas where there was no access to any type of ethnic hair products or accessories. Snapaholics.com was born (because honestly, hair bling is addictive)! Even though she didn't have her daughter home yet, she dove into the world of beads, snaps, ballies, and barrettes feet first. By the time she picked up G in December 2006, she was excited to try some of the styles she had been reading about and selling bling for (a little too excited....see our gallery page!)

In 2009 Katie and Steph got together and decided to create a "one stop shop" for new adoptive parents who were looking for advice on how to care for their child's hair and skin. They have both been there before, and they would love to take the stress out of the learning process so that new parents can focus on bonding with their new family member! They hope to inspire any and all parents looking for fresh, new hair ideas or who have issues and questions. They would like to review products so other parents can make informed decisions before sinking more money in to yet another hair gadget! They are also very excited to give away free hair stuff to their newfound cyber friends! Katie is looking forward to sharing hair tips for boys. Her son has not yet made an appearance on youtube, but Katie does his hair too! And in 2007 Katie gave birth to a little girl with stick straight, baby fine hair! So, she has a variety of hair textures and different hair needs that she can help with!

Katie and Steph would also love to share about their family lives, and other things that one or both of them are passionate about, like adoption, American Sign Language, and even cloth diapering!

Please enjoy perusing our site and come back often. We will be adding new stuff all the time and we are so excited about getting to know you!

And...we HIGHLY suggest you check back here tomorrow for some more excitement :)

(hint hint)