I have naturally curly hair. I get many complements on it, too, which is really cool. But of course, I’ve always liked straight hair. I know those with straight hair think I’m nuts, but they don’t get the fact that curly hair has it’s own set of issues to deal with and really have a life of their own. Curly hair is a characteristic you’re known for. Remember the tv show Felicity and the uproar that occurred when she cut her curls off?? There are many movies that the ugly duckling girl has curly/frizzy hair but then when the swan transformation occurs she now is beautiful, but with straight hair! Curly hair is very fragile requiring conditioner and deep conditioner by the vat! It wraps around everything and gets tangled in an instant. Hair products specifically designed for curly hair come and go with fashion trends. I can’t tell you the number of products that I used and loved that are no longer sold and the times that there is a real absence of curly hair products on the store shelves. Don’t even get me started on the whole bedhead and hat-head issue!! Curls usually require a lot more work than straight hair. I always had to get up so much earlier in the morning than my straighthaired comrades. Just not fair.
I gave up fighting the curls years ago, but if I get the chance to wear my hair straight, I can’t pass it up. Usually, that happens when I get a haircut or highlight. The stylist that I went to for many, many years usually blow-dried it straight and flat ironed it. It’s funny, my curls always frustrated her to no end. She always said that stylists do your hair better than you do, ut she could never get my curls to look like I could and they always looked so much worse! After several attempts we finally came to a compromise, I’d do the curls and she would either straighten it or do and up-do since I couldn’t do those styles at all with my hair.
So every so often I’d have straight hair for a few days. So many people wouldn’t recognize me and would say that they like my curls much better. It’s so bad that a boss that I would have would tell me that when I had straight hair it would put him in a bad mood. Don’t know what his excuse was on other days! 
Yesterday, I finally went and had my hair hightlighted and cut. It’s been probably 3 years since I had my hair highlighted and probably 2 years since I last had it cut. I was in desperate need of some attention. While I was at my Dad’s house I watched episodes of “What Not to Wear” and I realized I had turned in to one of those women that just lets themselves go. I was not anywhere near as bad as some of the ladies, but I had started on that path that a lot of stay-at-home moms travel. When you’re home with kids it’s so easy just to stay in your pajamas or sweats because something invariably get wiped, spit, thrown, or dropped on you… and that’s not to point out what the kids can get on you! Little kids are so demanding of time and attention that it’s a real struggle to get the bare minimum of hygiene accomplished when you’re home alone with them. Those with straight hair can easily shower after the kids are in bed and still look relatively presentable with just a little work the next morning. Such is not possible with curls like mine. My curls are what I call “inbetween”. With a little bit of work (from a stylist) they straighten out very nicely and with a little bit of work they make nice curls. Going to bed with wet hair there is no hope of looking any better than Medusa in the morning! My curls require the shower in the morning and the full complement of hair product and blow drying with scrunching to look presentable. Not something that’s easily accomplished every morning… or even every other morning when you have a husband that leaves the house at the latest 5:45am, but usually at rediculously early hours that no self-respecting stay-at-home mom would get up just to shower when you could be sleeping! But I digress…
So I got my hair done yesterday as the first step in taking care of myself and of course had the stylist blow dry and flat iron it. My second step is to get my makeup look updated. I’ll post about that when I get it knocked off my things to do list. I was excited because where we live now has like *zero* humidity (we used to live on the coast and the fuzzies would start almost immediately after leaving the salon). So when Nelson gets home he says I’m glad you like it (referring to the color and it being straight), but I like you. Which is a nice complement because it means that the package that he likes is more of what’s on the inside than what the wrapping paper looks like. But still… Today Xander (remember he’s 3 1/2 years old) says I don’t want your hair straight. It’s not like it’s this way forever! Come on you’re 3!! As soon as my hair even sees a hint of water the curls will return! My mother-in-law in the past has says she likes me better with curls. Straight hair is just so cool. This morning i woke up, ran my fingers through it a bit and I was ready to go! You can actually run your fingers through it… curls are strictly off limits… no touchie… or massive knots ensue! The only person who has said they like it straight is my dad!
It won’t be this way for very long and soon I’ll be back to my normal curly (or col-or-y as Xander says) self… no worries! I’ve learned my lesson that you can’t fight genetics and curls rock! But change is good, people!
