Do you ever try to straighten your hair?

by Caitlin
(Toccoa)

So there I am. Walking down the halls of high school, minding my own business when some random girl comes up to me and says it. The one sentence I hate most. The one sentence that is guaranteed to make me seriously dislike whoever’s saying it.

"Do you ever straighten your hair?" Well, yeah. DUH.

"Try". As if I'm a lost cause.

My hair's been curly forever. When I was conceived, I had a teeny-tiny little afro, I am sure. Usually uncontrollable. Usually frustrating to do anything at all with it.

Then I got it chemically straightened. Yay! Hair like all the other girls at last. Then my roots came in. So I went back to the salon, and ordered up another normal head of hair.

Oops. Turns out that my hair, being naturally dry and frizzy, doesn’t take well to harsh processes like chemically straightening. So it fell out. Not all of it, but a good bit. Oops.

After that fiasco, I began wearing my hair up again. In a big bun at the back of my head. Yuck.

It started to get longer, but the ends were still stick-straight. The roots, kinky. My mother, bless her, suggested I go get a perm to curl up the bottom of my hair. And it worked! I learned how to manage it, condition it, deal with it. And now I’m happy. Pretty much.

For every friend who longingly pets my head and says "Your hair is soooo pretty", there is a total stranger who says IT - "Do you ever straighten your hair?". I can’t stand it. Because my hair is naturally curly, I MUST hate it and want to have it straight.

I don’t!

My hair comes to just above my shoulders. It’s super-wavy at the roots, spiraling crazily at the bottom. And it’s big, soft, bouncy. It’s an Insta-Pillow. Add hairspray, and it doubles as a helmet. I’ve dyed the bottom half dark brown, and the top part is light brown. Let me say it. I love my hair. I’ve spent a good part of my life wrestling with it. I’ve straightened it (and still do on occasions. When I have a lot of free time). Now it’s perfect!

It’s very different. In my high school, hair is either straight or bad. Oddly enough, girls with naturally straight hair try to ‘scrunch’ it. This is acceptable.

But naturally curly hair? Worn curly? What is the matter with me? Have I given up? Am I a rebel? Or is this particular day a ‘bad hair day’, and every other day I use an iron to fry my hair into submission?

I like my hair. It makes me unique.

"Caitlin? Caitlin who?"

"You know. The curly-headed girl."

"Oh, yeah."

I happen to think curly hair is pretty.