This Curly Thing

Dear Wal,

As you can see from those pictures from my horse lesson I put up the other day, I have curly hair. Really poofy curly hair. My mom got me this book, Curly Girl, about taking care of curly hair and I couldn't believe my eyes. These people were real people with real hair and this really worked for them. I'm used to seeing the superstar actors and singers with curly hair and dreaming that my frizzy mess could be smooth and shiny like theirs, and then being disappointed when I think "Well, that's never going to happen." This looks like it really would work. Taking care of curly hair naturally. Who woulda thunk it?
I certainly didn't.
I mean, my hair has never bothered me on a deeply emotional level like some of the horror stories in Curly Girl. It's terrible some of the stuff these people went through. This one woman went through high school in total shame and disgrace because of her hair, and was legitimately scared for life by that experience. My curly, poofy hair was always just there. I accepted it as mine and present, I just washed it and left it mostly. The horror came with three hour hair cuts and brushing. I was a devil child. And I hated having my hair brushed, and for good reason. It was painful. I don't like doing it now. Hair cuts were even worse, because I had to sit there for an extended period of time and just stare at myself in a mirror while some stranger messed with my hair. I hate people messing with my hair. It just annoys me. "Just leave it." I'm always saying. One time my mom tried to blow dry my hair. I never let her do that again. She braids my hair occasionally, and it always turns out poofed and everywhere because she doesn't know how to handle it. It's not her fault, it's just my hair. It's hard. Curly hair is hard. You have to treat it like an unruly horse. Like Buzzy; with care.
But this book.
I was a little doubtful at first, but it was a book and it was laying there with a picture of a woman with wonderfully tamed curls on the front so I picked it up and read it. I was horrified by some of the things I read about people doing to their hair and fascinated by this wonderfully simple technique Curly Girl offers. Let me just say this, I've never straightened my hair. I've only ever used shampoo and conditioner and occasionally some stay-in goop. I've always brushed it though, and lately as it's been getting longer I've been noticing it's getting harder to handle and there's a lot more hair coming out in my brush than I'd like. Not that I'm worried about going bald or anything, but I would prefer not to rip out my hair slowly, strand by strand, over the rest of my lifetime. Compared to some people (A lot of people, according to this book. Who in the world would stick a hot metal object near their eyes and ears? Honestly, people.) the way I handle my hair is nothing. Chemical straightening, straightening irons, all kinds of anything that might work. I get the desperation. But I've never been that desperate.
So I'm going to try out this new thing and see how/if it works. It's harmless-no fancy product with who knows what in it that you have to buy or special tool to tease your hair into shape-just no shampoo and combing through your hair with your fingers instead of a brush. Essentially, anyway. Really it's a more fine-tuned degree of letting your hair be-fewer chemicals, no brushing. I'm intrigued. I might have superstar hair.
Not likely. But what's the harm in dreaming?

/endrant

P.S. I started doing the program in that book and it's fantastic. I've worn my hair down more days in one week than I think I have in the past year and a half.