Curly Hair Story with No happy Ending
by Mel
I read Murphy Horner's hair cut story, and it seemed very similar to mine, but without the happy ending.
I am a teenage girl, and I've struggled with curly hair since I was very, very little. I was born with stick-straight brown hair just like my mother's. Unfortunately for me and anyone who has had to put up with my hair tantrums, that fell out after a few weeks and was replaced by blond curly hair, just like my father's.
My mother, who had always wanted curly hair and always thought my hair was beautiful, never understood the torment of curly hair. It wasn't just styling it or looking at it in the mirror wishing it was straight, but it was also the other children. I had the curliest hair of anyone I knew, and it made me stand out, which, in the early years, is not a good thing.
I remember all sorts of comments starting very young about the way my hair looked; on several occasions those words reduced me to tears. As if getting combs and brushes ripped through my hair daily wasn't bad enough!
One time I was going over to a friend's house for the first time and wanted to make a good first impression, so I tried to style my hair like the other girls with straight, beautiful hair did. My mom made me wear it the "normal" way instead because curly hair just can't be worn like straight hair. I have a picture of me that day, and it's just horrible. My hair stuck out a long way from my head, and it was in a ponytail. I was wearing a headband, so a large section of my hair stood straight up behind it in a frizzy sort of crown. It's an awful picture.
I fought with my hair for years and years. Sometimes I cried, and sometimes I screamed. I tried all sorts of products, but the only things that calmed the curl made it look and feel super greasy.
On several occasions my mom tried to blow my hair straight, with little success. My hair would become one huge poof-ball, sticking almost straight out, while somehow still managing to retain the curl.
I was sick of being a freak. I decided to get it chemically straightened. Even that didn't work, and I had it done four times thinking maybe if I did it enough it would start to have an effect. The only result was that my hair became even frizzier and exceedingly dry. I even tried flat irons, but my hair was too curly to be conquered.
After that, I just tried to come to terms with it. I wore it back with lots of gel. I had stylists try to help, and while some succeeded in making my curly hair pretty, I was never able to reproduce the results.
My sister, who never had hair as curly as mine, had been successful in straightening her hair, and one day I set out on a mission to try it again. I stood in front of the mirror for about three hours "straightening" it. I had sad results, but they were the best I'd had, so I was fairly happy. I was still envious of my sister as well as all the other straight-haired people out there.
I didn't have the time to do that every day, and I still wasn't achieving the results I wanted. Eventually I graduated to blowing my hair straight, but that singed it and damaged it a lot. I didn't really care though; I just wanted straight hair. I was teased a lot at that point because I would never straighten my whole head of hair because it was too unmanageable. I would clip the rest of it up into a bun.
At that point I also started experimenting with curling irons. My hair was very resistant to straightening, but less so to curling, as long as I was trying to achieve small, tight curls. Eventually I was able to curl all my hair and be fairly satisfied with the results. It was a damaging and time-consuming process though. It took me several hours, and with all the homework and other things I had going on, there just wasn't time for it.
I invested in a very large curling iron. It wasn't for curling but for straightening, as far as I was concerned. I would blow dry my hair as straight as I could get it, and then use the curling iron to smooth and compress it. When I twisted the curling iron, it put enough resistance and strain on it that it straightened. And the circumference of it was large enough that my hair wouldn't hold the curl. (It only holds tight curls, unfortunately.)
After I had effectively thinned my hair with all the damage, I was able to simply "straighten" it with just the curling iron. I've kept this up for the past couple years, and I've managed to reverse some of the damage, although my hair is much shorter than it was before the straightening. At some points, sections of my hair were only centimeters long.
My hair remains severely damaged, and while I've been wearing it curly when I'm alone, it hasn't improved much.
Over the years, many people have told me that they really like my hair, while many others told me that it was horribly ugly. Personally, my belief is that I look awful with curly hair. I'll admit I don't look too much better with it straight since it's damaged and uneven.
I guess I just need advice on what to do with it, besides leaving it curly. Are there any new methods of straightening it that I'm not aware of? Someone help me!!
Mel
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