Hair Wars!

We all have them every so often, usually not when we've got a special meeting to chair, or we are the featured speaker at a special event. Those days are for crazy out of control hair that can only be managed with handfuls of goopy products added to various heady locations. Good hair days come when the hair on one's head hold a convention and decide to work together for "the cause," agreeing the scalp has been good to them, every single one of them, hasn't been a flake, or worse yet, too picky. Today is a good hair day, hopefully the first of many in a series of good hair days.

Not every day is like this one, however. Some days are out-of-control best-wear-it-in-a-ponytail days, when a baseball cap adds to the finished polished look. I have learned, through years of hair products, that less is more when it comes to my hair. Washing it, conditioning it, and then adding leave-in conditioner, helps keep it supple. Adding straightener keeps the out of control ends under control, allowing them to lay flay and not appear to be attempting to flee. All my life I have had hair as straight as uncooked spaghetti, until recently when it started to kink, then curl with no coaxing. I permed it, colored it, teased it, and was able to control it, somewhat. My hair went through phases. In college my thick brown hair embraced the highlights that were only offered to blondes. I loved being a blonde, and I enjoyed the blonde lifestyle. Those of you who are not blonde, don't understand or even know of the blonde lifestyle, a secret organization set aside only for blondes.

Then without any warning, brunettes became popular, and my blonde hair was once again brown. I rationalized it was because I was pregnant with my first child, who would later be a blonde, but I was really under the erroneous impression that coloring, or in this case lightening, one's hair could cause birth defects. My daughter was born to a brunette mother and the baby was perfect; I thought my brownness was responsible.

Over the years my brown straight hair has been permed far too many times. There was the time it was supposed to be loose curls, and eventually it was, but not until it grew out. The tight curls always seemed too tight, and the chestnut brown seemed to be getting darker, leaning more toward shades of black. While dark brown hair is good on some, it wasn't good on me and it seemed to make my fair skin appear ghostly white. For quite a while I thought I looked good, until the day I realized there was a blonde inside me trying to get out.

The air was cool today with relative humidity and very little wind. My hair was thicker then usual, and it lay perfectly where I placed each strand, staying in place all day. It was a good hair day. Tomorrow will probably be different and a baseball cap will solve the problem, somewhat.