Hair. It's a fashion statement and how we wear it is a personal reflection of our style and personality. It is an accessory that we are born with and will be with us until the day we die.
When I was a little girl, I wore my hair past my shoulders and often wore it tied up in pigtails, in a ponytail with a ribbon in it, or my Mom would curl it with rollers.
I hit my adolescence when Farrah Fawcett was hitting her stride with Charlie's Angels. At the time my hair was still long but I now wore it straight and loose. I'd only curl it with the curling iron for special occasions. Ninety percent of the girls in junior high were sporting the Farrah hairdo. This hairdo required them to blow dry their hair straight, and then take the curling iron and curl and curl the sides of their hair up until they had the little flip that Farrah had. They then sprayed and sprayed hair spray on to make the curl last. I loved Farrah's hair. Believe me, if I had had thick hair like she did, I would have gotten it cut like hers and done her flip too, but my hair was fine and I knew it wouldn't look as good on me as it did on her so I stayed with my style. On top of that, I didn't want to have to put that much time and effort into fixing my hair to get the look that the other girls wore, there were other things I wanted to do with my time.
I wish I had been born with curls like Sarah Jessica Parker or thick, full hair like Brooke Shields. My genetics gave me fine hair from my Mother's side of the family. When you have thick hair like Brooke Shields, you can wear it long and natural and it always looks gorgeous. When your hair is fine, that's another story. During my teens and through my twenties my hair and I were in a battle for control. My hair had the upper hand and it always won the fight. Just washing my hair and letting it air dry wasn't enough to make it look as nice as I wanted it too be. Because it was fine, I always had to do something to it to make it look good. It would take me a good half hour to curl it all with a curling iron and then it would be gorgeous. It would stay that way until I brushed it, slept on it, or went outside in the wind, then it would lose the curl and go back to being limp and straight. The solution, hairspray. I tried dousing it with hairspray but I hated the stink of it and how it left a sticky, hard coating on my hair. I very quickly threw the hairspray away for good. The solution after that? Putting it up in a bun or a ponytail with bobby pins. This would work and keep my hair looking nice until I went outside and the wind got a hold of me and pulled all of the loose strands from the ponytail out. Then I'd have to fuss around with my hair again to get them back into place. I finally had enough and decided to get a new hairdo.
I had my hair cut to shoulder length and I got a perm. This was wonderful I thought. My hair is pretty and curly and I don't have to work so hard to make it look good. Well, I should have known but I soon found out that there was a lot of work to having a perm. Right after a perm, you look great and things couldn't be better. After a couple of months go by it's a different story. When my hair grew out I was stuck with a very ugly flat, straight top on the back of my scalp. The ends of my hair were still curly and pretty but my roots were straight and looked awful. I was forced to go to the beauty salon and get a new perm. For anyone who has ever had a perm in your hair, you know what an expensive, time consuming and extremely smelly process this is and when you wear your hair permed you have to have it done at least every three months or your hair looks awful. I went through this for quite a few years I have to admit but I got tired of the process and of spending a very large amount of money during the year just to have an attractive hair style.
One day after going through yet another big fight with my hair trying to get it to do what I wanted it to do and it telling me where to go, I decided to try getting my hair cut in the same style as Jamie Lee Curtis. She also had fine hair and her very short hair looked beautiful on her and I thought that maybe it would be the answer for me and my hair woes. It was.
