More Than Just Hair

I was looking at this new book of mine today. (You know, the one that teaches me how to be proud of my curly hair instead of trying to hide it behind a blow dryer.) I noticed that the slogan across the top of the book's cover says, "More than just hair . . . it's an attitude." I admit that it sounds incredibly cheesy, but I like it. It fits with what I was trying (and probably not succeeding) to say yesterday.

I've spent the last ten years of my life trying to fit into the world around me. Trying to wear the right clothes, to use the right slang, to live the right life . . . and that includes my hair. It may sound crazy - especially to someone with straight hair - but the world around us teaches us that beauty means straight hair. Straight, shiny, swishy hair. Those of us with curly hair spend hours trying to flatten out the kinks and erase the ringlets so that we fit into the acceptable idea of perfection. And then a rainstorm or even a sprinkler comes along and ruins it all, leaving big, frizzy puffballs instead of hair. (Remember Monica's hair in the Bahamas on that classic Friends season finale? I've had worse hair than that.)

Well, this is my act of rebellion. No more blow dryers, flat irons or curlers! I'm saying goodbye to straight hair and a life of trying to fit into a straight world's idea of who I should be! I won't always talk about hair, but I am going to do my best to be worthy of the potential of my curls and live a life that is free, spontaneous and crazy, full of love, laughter and . . . well . . . life! And I'm going to write about it all along the way!

After that introduction, it seems somehow ironic that I've spent the first three days of my new curly life sacked out on the couch with a cold...