Tips For Caring For Curly Hair, By Expert Carolina Contreras, 'Miss Rizos

We talked for a while with Carolina Contreras, "Miss Rizos", expert in hair care and defender of natural hair. In addition, this young Dominican woman has dedicated her efforts to combat hair stereotypes and herself opened the first natural salon in Santo Domingo in 2014

For that reason, Unilever has partnered with Miss Rizos for the #QueTeMueve campaign, which encompasses the diversity of passion points among Latinos and aligns with its mission to empower girls and women around the world to help them win. confidence in its natural beauty. Miss Curls is forging her own path and inspiring other Afro-Latinas and naturalists to do the same, while continuing to use her platform to awaken society one curl at a time.

How should the world of beauty change so that all hair types are viewed just as beautiful?

Carolina:Well, first, we have to see how the beauty standard is created. The standard of beauty is beginning to be created by the media, which is what we have the most, such as television. In our case as Latinos, soap operas, magazines. For example, People En Español, which chooses the 50 Most Beautiful of the Year. The media is the one that determines in some way or another what is beautiful. So we are going to start there by including more people who represent the beautiful diversity that exists in our Latin American countries. In other words, if we currently see magazine covers, for example, Latinas are not going to see many women who look like me. So what message do we send to girls who stop at the supermarket to see these magazines? That they are not beautiful. Just like the soap operas and the movies we watch, even the Disney dolls themselves. Who are the protagonists of these films? So let's start there, as people who work in these media, we must be more responsible and include the diversity that our Latin beauty represents, and then we should also start from home, instilling in our girls and boys that we are all beautiful and what makes us beautiful is just the difference and that's where we started.instilling in our girls and boys that we are all beautiful and that what makes us beautiful is just the difference and that's where we started.instilling in our girls and boys that we are all beautiful and that what makes us beautiful is just the difference and that's where we started.

What moves you to promote the value of your natural hair?

It moves me precisely to make that change that we talked about earlier. I feel like I have this theory, right? I say that society has to change. That it has to be more progressive, but I cannot wait for society. I must take the change in my hands and create that change myself that I want to see. And that's why Miss Rizos was born, as a platform to communicate these messages and from my point of view create that change. I am moved by revolutionizing beauty worldwide. I start in the Dominican Republic, but now we are in many other countries and that is what moves me. It moves me that a girl can look in the mirror and say wow! I was not born imperfect from the factory, I am perfect exactly as I am and that it is as it is. So my motivation is that, my motivation is to change the world to a smile.

And how do you carry the message to other teenage women or girls who must love their natural, curly hair?

Without looking specifically like Miss Curls, we have a social impact program where we create educational workshops for girls. Those workshops consist of an empowerment component, an identity component and a beauty component. I have a theory that, if you know how to use a comb or brush correctly with your texture, that empowers you. Because from a young age we are taught to use the wrong combs, even then we think that the hair is wrong and not the comb or the product. So, by creating that awareness of using the right things for your hair, you are going to create this assurance in the girl that she is going to be able to comb her hair. To be able to get ready, that is, to get pretty without feeling like something is wrong with her. So,we do beyond the part of social networks where we indirectly impact girls, women, adolescents we go to the classrooms of the schools, we go to summer camps. We created a comic book called Super Curly and within the comic book we also teach different ideas about curly hair. Because you imagine what superheroes you know with curly black hair. None. So, like I told you right now, I can't wait for society to believe in superheroes. I am going to create it, I am going to become that superhero for these girls and inspire them to also become superheroes for their communities. We created a comic book called Super Curly and within the comic book we also teach different ideas about curly hair. Because you imagine what superheroes you know with curly black hair. None. So, like I told you right now, I can't wait for society to believe in superheroes. I am going to create it, I am going to become that superhero for these girls and inspire them to also become superheroes for their communities. We created a comic book called Super Curly and within the comic book we also teach different ideas about curly hair. Because you imagine what superheroes you know with curly black hair. None. So, like I told you right now, I can't wait for society to believe in superheroes. I am going to create it, I am going to become that superhero for these girls and inspire them to also become superheroes for their communities.

One of the most important things also in terms of impacting communities is ensuring that we leave you the tools so that community can continue to do the work without you. One of the things that happened recently, I was even in the living room of my friend Carolina and I am crying and she says: "Why are you crying?" and I say to him: "Read this!" It is that in the summer camp where we always go, we have been going there for 4 years, and the girls were motivated to create their own camp, their own theme called "I am Curly, I am Important". In the camp it was called "I am a girl, I am important." So the girls are creating their own workshops for themselves.

And to speak a little beauty, can you tell us in a few simple steps how you take care of your hair?

Of course, the first thing I recommend is to prepare the hair before the shampoo, that is, apply a little oil the night before to wash it so that the shampoo process is not so aggressive. Then it is super important to seal the moisture of the hair. Many people put on products that hydrate, hydration evaporates. So it is important to seal that hydration with any product that seals the hydration and one of the tips that I love to use to make your hair last longer is obviously to use Dove dry shampoo with the rich coconut smell that you it allows to last longer with super cute hair. Dry shampoo gives you the opportunity to lengthen the time of your definition of curls or your twist out, of any type of hairstyle you decide to do. And one of the most important tips I would say is to sleep with a satin pillowcase. Regardless of the hair texture, it is super important so that the bottom of your pillow does not absorb the natural oils from your hair.

When you have the opportunity to be part of the Unilever campaign and Dove products, what did you think at the time? What moves you? The campaign is called Qué Te Movve. Tell me a little bit about that

I was very excited. The first thing is that Dove is a very nostalgic brand because when I visit any house of my relatives from my grandmother to my little brother, that is, everyone has a soap or a scrub or something of this brand. So, I loved that they were going to be proud because it was going to represent a brand they knew and on the other hand, Dove is also a brand that is in the houses around the world, regardless of their race or skin color. So that I, a black woman with curly hair, can represent this brand that is so well-known would give me that opportunity to change people's perception of what a person with power is, a person with beauty. So that motivated me a lot to belong to this campaign, not only the brands but the message. The message that moves you,I am constantly on the move, moving from side to side, I am seeing the world in some way. So I felt like I totally connected to the campaign and I am very excited to be a voice within Unilever and within Dove. To inspire others to move with their careers, to move with their external and internal care and to be part of that diversity that we so much need to respect.