Tracee Ellis Ross' hair "dried to a pulp" after she poured cans of beer over her locks to try and tame her curls.
The 'Black-ish' actress used to have a "very contentious relationship" with her curls because she had no idea how to treat it and admitted many of the things she tried left her hair damaged.
She said: "I had a very contentious relationship with my hair because I couldn't find products that supported it.
"My hair was extremely damaged from trying to beat it into submission - from hair relaxers and getting my hair blown out, to putting a blow dryer and hot comb, all the different things that people of colour end up having to try in order to manipulate their hair into what society says it should look like.
"I was trying different things, I put beer in my hair. I had an Italian friend who had big, huge, glorious curls. She would wash her hair, wet them, and then pour a can of beer in her hair. And it would make the curl. So I tried that.
"But that was the beginning of me discovering how my hair did not like alcohol. Maybe for the first couple of hours because they would curl, but if you do that for a month it will be dried to a pulp."
The 47-year-old star even resorted to trying to "iron" her hair straight.
She told Dazed Beauty: "I've tried all of it. I tried ironing my hair with an actual clothing iron. Many, many things that all of us try and do.
"And then I started to educate myself both about what worked on my hair and what didn't."
Once she eventually got her hair looking and feeling healthy again, Tracee became "extremely protective" of her locks and wouldn't let anyone else style her.
She said: "Then by the time I had nursed my hair back to health, I was extremely protective of it. When I started acting professionally I wouldn't let anyone touch it and I did my hair myself.