Hi curl friend!
I’m Donna – The Curl Next Door.
A grassroots curly girl who went on to pioneer a curl infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand, reshaping access to specialist education, products and care for natural texture.
Donna surpasses her especially talented skill-set, by creating life-changing experiences for her Curl Friends.
-CZ, Auckland
If you’re curly, you may understand why this mattered.
In 2018, at the age of 48, I reached a turning point. After years of navigating my natural texture without clear guidance, I decided it was time to properly understand it — not fight it.
At that time, I was not a trained hairdresser. I was a grassroots curly woman asking the same questions many others were asking.
It was precisely that vantage point — outside the traditional salon pathway — that allowed me to see the structural gaps clearly.
Rather than inheriting the industry’s assumptions, I sought out the most rigorous international curl education available and began building from there.
At the time, the conversation around curls in New Zealand was fragmented. Structured curl-specific education was not available locally. Product access was narrow. Specialist cutting approaches were rare.
Internationally, however, something significant was unfolding. The natural hair movement, The Curly Girl Method, and a broader desire for authenticity were converging. Specialist educators, product innovators and curl-focused stylists were emerging in response to grassroots demand.
In Aotearoa, that niche had not yet taken root.
Uncategorisable miscreant.
Passionate curly.
Curl friend.
So I began building it.
What started as personal curiosity evolved into deliberate action. I created a directory mapping curl education opportunities and listing stylists who had undertaken curl community-trusted professional training, so consumers could finally find informed care.
I began publicly sharing accessible curl education for consumers through The Curl Next Door platforms and reached out to international educators to understand what it would take to bring specialist knowledge to New Zealand.
During this same period, access to quality curl-friendly products in NZ was limited. In response, I launched Curls Naturally — creating NZ’s first dedicated online retail space to bring multiple internationally trusted curl brands into Aotearoa.
A significant turning point came when, after several exchanges, Lorraine Massey — author of Curly Girl: The Handbook — invited me to train under her at the CurlyWorld Masterclass. That education marked the beginning of my formal curl cutting pathway and shaped both my technical precision and holistic understanding of natural texture.
Almost immediately after training, during a period when global lockdowns restricted travel into New Zealand, I began providing structured curl education in response to demand from stylists. Education continued steadily, with workshops and training delivered across both the North and South Islands as the appetite for informed curl care grew.
Alongside this, I began wholesaling specialist curl product lines to salons, supporting stylists who were investing in curl-focused training and needed access to professional, curl-aligned formulations. Strengthening distribution pathways became another practical layer of the infrastructure being built.
As demand grew, clients began travelling from across New Zealand for specialist curl cuts.
There was a season where I was, quite literally, running with scissors — responding to a groundswell of demand from curlies who had never experienced specialist care before, and stylists who wanted to learn.
That season built momentum.
But it also clarified something important: this work needed structure, sustainability and a grounded space from which it could continue to grow.
In 2020, I established my private curl studio in New Plymouth to create a calm, one-on-one environment where natural texture could be honoured, assessed and shaped with precision. Alongside this, I continued developing Curls Naturally as a dedicated online retail space, supported by my small, trusted team and family.
My formal training includes in-person education with Lorraine Massey (USA) in Curl-by-Curl cutting and The Curly Girl Method, advanced study with Curly Hair Artistry (USA), Level 2 Rezo education under Nubia Suarez (USA), professional tight-curl education through Cut It Kinky (USA), CADŌ Academy Level 1 under Reema Jaber (Canada), as well as mentoring and numerous specialised online intensives with international curl educators. Continual professional development remains central to my practice.
More recently, I have trained alongside and supported fellow curl specialist Tahni Daniels in delivering curl education locally, contributing to the continued strengthening of specialist standards across Aotearoa.
What began in 2018 as a passionate response to need has matured into steady, long-term stewardship.
I continue to build with that in mind.
WOW!
Donna has given me the knowledge and techniques to love and embrace my curls.
-Jewels Berry, Taranaki