Friday, October 23, 2015

Three Things: Benefits of Curly Hair





My past two posts were about coming to terms with having curly hair. Today I want to focus on the good aspects, instead of being a downer. Because, however depressed I have been about it in my lifetime there are things that are genuinely 
good about having curly hair. 
Let me touch on three of them.
1. It is always voluminous. 
My hair can get out of control. I have days when there are wiry frizzles a mile high above my head. I have days when I can't see out of my hair, because there is so much of it. But while this is a frequent issue, especially on particularly humid days, I never have to deal with the reverse problem: limp hair.




2. Up-dos stay in well. 
I love to create intricate hairdos for myself and for other people. When I do them for people who have the type of sleek, smooth hair I have envied, then it can actually be very difficult to get thier hair to stay put. The tiny braid and whorls fall slip out of the bobby pins immediately. But when I do my own hair it moulds into whatever shape I want it to have. I can sometimes get away with very few pins, because my curly hair is naturally malleable.




3. It is beautiful. 
This statement feels hard to say for two reasons. The first is because it has the potential to make me sound self-centred and vain. The second reason is because of how long it has taken me to believe this. I still have days when I don't. But I am growing to be more confident about it. I am healing from some of the hurtful things that were unintentionally spoken to me about my hair. You guys have helped. I have had several people speak encouraging words to me about my hair. Thank you to those who have done that. 

I think my hair is beautiful. It is brown with copper and gold tones that come out in the sunlight. It forms naturally into thick curls and waves. I think that it is one of my most vivid and appealing physical features. I wish I hadn't let it get me down for this long so that I could have been enjoying it this whole time! 




Bonus: It boings. 
My roommate Sara encouraged me to add this to the list. She tells me that this is one of my hair's crowning abilities. It reminds me of one of my favourite books from childhood Ramona the Pest, in which the heroine has an addiction to "boing-ing" another little girl's corkscrew curls, because she cannot resist the pure pleasure of watching it spring back into place. The little girl gets in big trouble for this and it is a recurring theme throughout the series. 

2 comments:

  1. The boing is an important concept. I think curly-haired people all over the world have something they could add here. For example, a long time ago, I was dating a girl who had five younger brothers and sisters. When I would come to pick her up for an evening, her younger siblings would bounce up to me eagerly and ask to boing my curls. This was fine, but her mother would ask me also. She was a very serious, competent mother of six. I really respected her. I didn't marry this woman's daughter.

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    1. How strange about that woman wanting to touch your hair. I suppose there were very few of your particular hair-type within your community. Did Mom's mom ever want to touch your hair? Is that how you decided to marry her?

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