Wednesday, July 02, 2003
I officially admit that my hair has become wavy.
When I was 18, I used to blowdry my hair upsidedown with mousse applied at the roots to make it look thicker & to prevent it from hanging flat and limp. But, I could let it air dry & it would be straight as a pin--straight as it had been my entire life.
About the time I started to need a bra (age 21), my hair also started to get body. I noticed it was just slightly thicker, slightly more interesting. But, then, I went through a "very short hair" phase for a couple of years, and it didn't matter.
Straight hair becomes part of your identity, like being tall or wearing glasses. Because of my resistance to the possibility, I didn't even notice the wave in my hair until I was 25 & I had a bob haircut & realized that if I blew it straight, it didn't have that weird "crease."
I also noticed that there was frizz where there had never been frizz before. I tried pommade, glossy gel stuff, hair repair cream, leave-on conditioner. I stopped dyeing my hair red after 10 years, thinking my hair was "damaged" from the dye.
But, it is not damaged. It is wavy. It flips out & it flips in. It needs anti-curl gel. It needs a round brush and a blow-dryer. It needs to be tied back in humid weather. Or, it needs to be let loose to dance its wavy-hair dance, its disorderly, flingy dance.
It is no longer hair for small, plastic barrettes that the six, seven, eight, fourteen, twenty-year-old wore just to pull her bangs out of her face.
It is wavy. It is substantial. It is not tame.
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When I was 18, I used to blowdry my hair upsidedown with mousse applied at the roots to make it look thicker & to prevent it from hanging flat and limp. But, I could let it air dry & it would be straight as a pin--straight as it had been my entire life.
About the time I started to need a bra (age 21), my hair also started to get body. I noticed it was just slightly thicker, slightly more interesting. But, then, I went through a "very short hair" phase for a couple of years, and it didn't matter.
Straight hair becomes part of your identity, like being tall or wearing glasses. Because of my resistance to the possibility, I didn't even notice the wave in my hair until I was 25 & I had a bob haircut & realized that if I blew it straight, it didn't have that weird "crease."
I also noticed that there was frizz where there had never been frizz before. I tried pommade, glossy gel stuff, hair repair cream, leave-on conditioner. I stopped dyeing my hair red after 10 years, thinking my hair was "damaged" from the dye.
But, it is not damaged. It is wavy. It flips out & it flips in. It needs anti-curl gel. It needs a round brush and a blow-dryer. It needs to be tied back in humid weather. Or, it needs to be let loose to dance its wavy-hair dance, its disorderly, flingy dance.
It is no longer hair for small, plastic barrettes that the six, seven, eight, fourteen, twenty-year-old wore just to pull her bangs out of her face.
It is wavy. It is substantial. It is not tame.
