a hairy tale

Brent's Grandma Pat once sent me this Peanuts' cartoon in the mail:

She understood my curly hair issues all too well, as she has been in that club her whole life as well. I still have this up on my fridge, and when I saw it the other day it got me to thinking about my hair. It has been curly curly curly from the time it came in:

I spent most of elementary and high school figuring out what in the heck to do with it. Here were a few things I learned:

- do not brush

- do not over wash

- do not try and blow dry straight with out products

-do not try and blow dry without diffuser

- product, product, product [my mom thought I drank mousse as fast as I went through it]

- bobby pins

- check the forecast: if it is going to be raining or humid-- don't bother with doing anything to it

and last but most important:

- just go with a ponytail 

Luckily despite my mane, Brent still noticed me [and okay, it's not like he had great hair either most of the time in high school ;) ]: 

So I went to college and had no real style, just a LOT of very very curly CURLY hair. A LOT.

It was a dorm event when I decided to straighten it. Count em: one two THREE straighteners. This had to be a fire hazard:

This is why, most of the time, my hair found its way into a ponytail or hat, or a head band if there was an 80's celebration [this hair was made for the 80s], or braids if there was a hoe down, obviously.

[I'm on far left…with the rat's nest]

 When I graduated college and got married, my hair was still very long, very thick, and very curly:

Brent was used to sometimes suffocating in that mess. 

I had finally kind of figured out how to deal with it, when I got this crazy idea to chop it off. Isn't that what young girls do when they get married?

So I donated it to locks of love:

Over the next two years I grew it back out, and it was still curly, but was slowly losing the tight curls. And we were moving! And things were changing! And if there was ever a time to be absolutely crazy it was then! So I really let my hair dresser chop it.

And proceeded to cry for the next 11 months. [That's a bit dramatic, but I did hate it].

Caroline was a good consoler, and was all "Hey! At least you HAVE hair!" 

It obviously continued to grow, but for the next year I typically wore it in this not-really-a-ponytail ponytail thing. 

Those high school students are looking younger and younger these days

But I realized it was losing more curl, for sure. It was still curly, and would give me fits if I wanted to straighten it, but I could no longer fix it the ways I had grown used to. 

And then I got pregnant and had Blythe and forget it! I don't even know what is happening up there. It mostly just fell out, but what remained is not very curly, not really straight, and way thinner than I'm used to. So I cut it off again.

For a few days when I fixed it it would be kind of curlier, like the above picture, and then it would whack out on me again.

I figured I'd wait until I was done nursing to see if that would change it again, and then I got it trimmed up, cut some bangs, and pretty much just started straightening it as that seemed easier.

 I'm still trying to figure it out. And like before, most days I just wear it in a ponytail and call it good! I can't believe I had so much hair just 5 years ago, and how much it has changed. Crazy how time has a way of working in our bodies, even when we don't really know it's happening: even when we don't really realize the drastic changes until we sit down and write a blog post and browse through old pictures :)