That Kind Hair

by Charlotte
(Aberdeen, NC )

Loving my kind hair

My mother swears the nurses fought over who was going to comb my hair when I was born. It was a head full of wavy black curls. As I got older the family fought over whose idea would work better to manage my nappy hair. It was dark blond, frizzy, thick, dry, and a tornado-struck-it look ... there's no other words I can use.

Like many girls I wondered what kind of karma I had to be inflicted with such hair. I reasoned that praying to God for straight hair would be too much so I prayed for him to make it wavy. Well that didn't happen so ...

I have had mayonnaise put on my hair, afro sheen, perms, straighteners and dozens of other products, used a curling brush look, used a curling iron look and many hairstyles. A note to everyone: brushing it out when it's dry doesn't help it and hairstyles for straight hair don't always work on curly hair.

To this day the smell of mayonnaise turns my stomach. My mother swears it made my hair more moisturized. A perm just gave some control, sort of, and a straightener was vanity at its best. Chemicals only fix the hair that is currently there. New growth is not covered when getting these looks. The curling brush and iron was trying to mask the inevitable, and looking back at those pictures I see that it didn't help a lot some days. It took a lot of time to do these looks every day and moisture and weather weren't covered.

My hair has always been a topic of conversation and has become a signature of me. People have told me they spotted my hair before me. It has been said I have had "helmet" hair, nappy hair, fat hair and kinky hair. When it was really long it grew out, not down, so I was told I had Marge Simpson's sisters' hair look. My all-time favorite was ... I have kind hair - the kind you find on a dog's butt.

Now as an adult I keep my hair natural and controlled with the help of styling products. People give me comments that it's pretty, I have to pay to get that look and, you're so lucky. I smile and tell them I am lucky. If only they knew.