HAIR P(A)IN

Its Monday already and i just got back from College. I have been (if you noticed) tweaking the blog, making it nicer and prettier; keeping in mind that i want it to be clean and easy for everybody to surf around. It sure looks nice now. And cleaner, of course. Everything needs to be clean!

This dramatic or whatever you call that expression picture of me was taken in Galle, Sri Lanka this year but i am not here to talk about the picture nor about Sri Lanka. There will be a whole post on my visit to this pretty country very soon so keep a look out.

Its very funny but i am here to talk about hair today. Yes, you read me right. Hair. What would we do without them? We kind of have a love/hate relationship with it. We cannot do without it and sometimes we hate how limp/dry/long/short it is. 

I dont know about you, but i had a very difficult time with my hair. I have a natural bed of curls and no matter how many time you gasp about it,  its a pain when you are growing up with that mass of twirly things on you head and when you have absolutely no clue how to style it! I went through it and i am telling you that i hated my hair. I hated the fact that i was stuck with this while my younger sibling was blessed with shiny glossy straight mane. I was so jealous. She could keep it open and could grow it long and damn! it was beautiful. I couldn't do that. I mean, my parents thought it was better to have it cut short all the time *the boy cut* for my convenience. Its a sound point; but i was still jealous. I wanted long, straight hair. 

I let my hair grow when i was in standard 3. My friends used to marvel at my hair and i used to marvel at theirs. They all had long straight hair, you see. And at that time i didn't quite understand the drama of my curly hair. My point was, i can never open my hair! Its frizzy and irritating and uncontrollable.  I never got the fact how my friends used to wish that they had my hair. I never got it. I was in standard 3, oblivious to the fact that my mane was so sought after. I was in standard 3 and i was still jealous. 

In standard 5 i decide to straighten it against my parents wishes. Ok, they we not against it. They were scared that i would spoil my hair from all those chemicals. They told me the pros and cons of curls. It had no effect obviously. So i got it done one fine day and boom.. I looked like a different person. I looked thinner and most importantly, i could let my hair open. I was crazy with joy. Obviously that joy took a crap when in the next wash my hair became curly again! I went back to the parlor, got a rebound. Still, my hair went back to normal on the next wash. So, i decided the parlor was stupid. I was upset and i decided to chuck the whole straight hair issue.

Come standard 7, i was up to test it again. A new parlor and new products. Result- miserably failed again. This time i was seriously crazy. HOW CAN MY CURLY HAIR,WITH THAT SHIT LOAD OF STRAIGHTENING PRODUCTS, STILL BE SO CURLY! You have got to be kidding me!! But nobody was kidding and everybody was perplexed. My hair was too strong and hence its really not going to work. Seriously? Thats what they said. Die, bitches.

I was so sad. I didnt want to see a parlor in my life. In my sadness my hair grew. It grew and it grew and everybody was on and on about my glossy curls. I saw no point in it. All i wanted was straight hair. I cut my hair multiple times and like you know, you can only have a step cut in curly hair. It was a boring routine that went on for years.

 

By the time i was in my 10 standard, i became aware of many things. First, about my body structure and then about my hair. I slowly grew into my hair. I stopped hating it (i was too tired to do that anymore) and finally started accepting it. My main point at that time was- since there is no cream in the world that can straighten my hair, i might as well learn to live with it and make it happening. I was already reading Vogue and paid attention to how people with curls styled their hair. So many ways! It was making a comeback and suddenly people were craving for curls. I was so envied wherever i went. The pros of curls were soon being realized. Soon from Bane, my hair became a Boon. 

By the time i was in standard 11th, i was quite comfortable in my skin and my hair. I kept it long and just used a serum to control the fizz and just like that, for the first time, i started admiring my layered curls and It was beautiful!! I didnt have to comb it all the time (once only when its conditioned) and no matter how messy it was- that look was and still is, IN!  I realized that, yes, there are only a few ways you can cut or style it, but having curls itself is a such a huge personal style statement that you don't need anything else to coordinate with it . 

This is the lesson that i learnt when i was very young. When i should have been playing with sticks, i was fighting to have straight hair like everybody. I don't regret straightening my hair; hell, that was learning. And thank god it was a failed attempt at it. I am just happy that i controlled my urges and did not try to damage my hair after 2 failed attempts. I am happy that i let it grow.

I did cut the slack on my hair, accepted it (even though my acceptance was full of hate), and then admired it. And now i love it. It defines me now. Its amazing for my lifestyle too because i am so lazy (you need to wash your curls every 3 days) ha ha. And trust me when i say this- its low maintenance. All you need is a coconut oil, good shampoo/conditioner and serum. Let it air dry and you are done. (don't forget the wide toothed comb too).  The daily tangles can be easily be de-tangled with your fingers. You don't need to blow dry it! Just leave it be. Its true it tends to attract dirt really fast but, actually, that's the only weakness. 

Thankfully, my hair glory was realized when i was 15. Yes, quite young. And now at 22, with the confidence that has grown in me by leaps and bound, i am happy that i am different; happy that i am envied; happy that i can pull off anything thanks to my hair; happy that i can let it loose; happy and finally content. I do have my share of bad hair days and get really angry while combing the tangles sometimes. 

But I thank my lucky stars and still thankful to everybody (and to Vogue and Cosmo and the www ) who made me realize that it suited my oval face and that curly hair was totally was me. It still doesn't matter that the realization came after many years AND after burning and almost ruining my hair due to rebounding.

It was me all the way. Sometimes, standing out with a messy lion mane is cool. 

And yes, scary. Accepted. (LOL)

Stay Blessed people.