It’s huge. Massive. It’s like a massive, living, breathing shrubery on my head. It’s curly, except when it’s straight, and then it’s wavy, unless it’s fuzzy, until it decides to become nappy, or perhaps turn into a massive, honkin’ dreadlock.
Hair balms do nothing. Gels, nada. Sprays - my hair laughs at them in glee. No amount of conditioning will leave it managable. My hair brushes look like a cat has curled up on them and died.
To blow dry takes at least a half an hour. Put it in a bun, and I wind up with a beehive. A ponytail results in a massive, fluffy, porcupine like bush on the back of my head.
And now, just to make my freekin’ day complete - MY HAIRBRUSH IS STUCK IN MY HAIR.
I shaved mine last week - after 15 years of fighting, I finally won!
I love it. I don’t know why I waited.
Imagine the freedom of getting out of the shower, towelling off and forgetting about it!
Imagine taking your laundry out of the dryer and not having to pull hairballs off it !
Imagine your partner being free to move around in bed without the inevitable ‘Ow … ooh … get off my hair’
Imagine wearing hats without looking stupid or having them pop off your head from the force of The Hair !
Imagine what the back of your head feels like to touch !
Imagine using a blob of shampoo the size of a quarter ! And NO conditioner !
Imagine, after a shower, not having to pull miles of clumped hair out of the drain !
Imagine not looking idiotic when it’s humid out !
Wow, I am a true convert. I loved my hair for 15 years but i sure was glad to see it on the floor of the salon. Liberating ! I understand it’s a difficult decision to make. What I did was admire short-haired women until I realized that I, too, could be one. And then my hair ate my comb. And my dinner. So I decided it was time to go.
But if you’re not ready yet … I understand that too. my heart goes out to you, and your hair-derived misery.
Sadly, it’s not necessarily texture that’s the problem, so much as volume.
I can put my hair up in a bun type of thing in the AM, leave it all day, sleep on it and take it out the next morning, and the hair in the middle is still wet. It’s absurd, really.
I have to do the drain in my tub with draino about once every 2 months.
And yet, I persist.
I did manage to get the brush out of my hair, however.
I just found a wonderful book called “Curly Girl.” It has lots of good tips for taking care of curly hair. The big shocker–most shampoos are bad for curly hair, because they’re too harsh and they dry it out.
I checked this book out of the library, and I’m going to run right out and get my own copy. Anyone with curly hair needs to get this book!
Umm… not meaning to suggest anything unduly radical or anything, but why don’t you reduce the volume and length to a manageable amount by having it cut?
It’s not curly, just kinda wavey, and it’s very fine, and yet, it’s really thick. I don’t know what to do with it. I hate how I look with my hair up so I just brush it and wear it in a basic parted style all the time.
And if I don’t brush it every few hours, it gets frizzy and I end up with a blonde halo around my head. It’s incredibly frusterating, but I must be doing something right. I mean, once time, at a concert, some random chick wandered up to me and told me she loved my hair. She was obviously stoned out of her mind, of course, but still…!
Is your hair kind of like Andi McDowell’s? She looks great!
Have your tried having it thinned? As a young woman, I used to have that done. (I could only describe my hair as “bushy.”) Time took care of that. Now I have thinning hair. Ratz!
BTW, I don’t want to promote any products here. But I did see a hair specialist in Atlanta. I asked him what shampoo I should use for hair care in general. Think of a couple of the cheapest brands – those are the ones he recommended.
cowgirl, did you really shave your head? Cool! I’ve always wanted to do that!
Mrs.Z has thick curly hair. Then I spotted a NYC mag that had a article on salons that specialize in curly hair. The one she picked is called Ouidad. (you can find their commerical on the web easily)
Let me tell you. Although it seems expensive ($100) it’s not that bad as she only gets it done about twice a year. That’s how they schedual her. The products and cutting techniques they use produce dramatic results.
Have you tried straight perms?
Lots of women in Japan get straight perms - they have really thick hair. In fact I was always trying to find volume boosting hair stuff but they always read: “borumu down”.
Personally, the “Dread” option is the most appealing to me, but I have a feeling I would just wind up with one large, unrully dread, as opposed to a shwack of chicky, stylish dreads.
I keep hoping 80’s hair will come back - then, I had no problem whatsoever.
My hair is naturally as straight as a stick, and therefore I get perms about two or three times a year- I guess we’re never satisfied with what we’ve got, huh? Personally I think most women look awful with stick-straight hair, but that’s just my opinion.
Hey now! slaps SweetLucy You’re lookin’ at a girl with fabulous red-gold hair that’s as straight as Al Gore!
It isn’t, really…I have to blow dry it to get it really straight, b/c otherwise I get this annoying kink-that-isn’t-a-wave-or-a-curl…but I love having straight hair. I permed it once, when I was twelve years old, and refused to do so ever again.
I think curly hair is absolutely beautiful…but I have friends with problems similar to Alice_In_Wonderland’s and it’s so high-maintenance that I’ve always been grateful I got relatively “boring,” low maintenance hair.
My future SIL, for instance, has those really tight ringlet curls…and she has no variety in hairstyles because if she cuts it at all it just gets bigger and bigger. She has to keep it long in order for gravity to kick in.
My hair is - well, my mom is Korean and my dad is Scottish. DOes that spell it out nicely? When I get it cut, it’s okay for three weeks, then it goes FOOF! and I have to start beating it into submission every morning. Woe betide all who meet me before I shower. Even when I’ve successfully conquered it, it has these little bits that boink out on the side. God I hate those. I twist them, smack them, and finally just cut them off with beard scissors. I HAVE to get a haircut.
