Monday, January 19, 2009

When you can't be curly

Yes, there are days when I am not reveling in my curls. Shocking, I know.

I was checking out this blog post about a French braid headband (very cool but I don't think I could ever do this myself because it's just too complicated and I'm just too lazy) and I got to thinking about how I don't let my curls curl every day. I have not straightened my hair since July 2007, but I have done other things with it that did not exactly encourage curls.

When I visit my hair stylist, for example, I usually ask for a French braid. I do this because my stylist just really isn't very good at working with my curls. No matter how many times I ask her not to excessively handle my hair during the drying process, she can't keep her mitts out of my hair. And I always end up looking electrocuted. So, I ask her to French braid it. It's my way of sidestepping the whole problem -- I leave looking pretty and she doesn't have to humiliate herself once again by showing that she still doesn't understand how to blow-dry curly hair. I think it looks so pretty when it's done and it lasts me a couple of days. I rarely do this myself though, mostly because of the afore-mentioned laziness.

In between visits to the hair salon, I can't do the French braid thing and so I have come up with other solutions. My hair is not really long enough for a decent ponytail but I do like to wear it up on occasion, so I have a couple of hairpieces I turn to now and again. Like this one. People at work think I spend hours straightening my hair and putting it up when I wear this. I think a little mystery is a good thing.

I've got this sort of glamorous one, a long curly ponytail, and a shorter, wavy ponytail. (One of the cool things about having 3a hair is that all of these curl patterns represent viable options for my real hair -- that's how variable my hair is.) They give me a whole different look without having to damage my hair (or wait for it to grow!). I would send you to wigs.com to buy these hairpieces, but my most recent experiences with the company have been downright poor, so I don't recommend them.

5 comments:

Kcurly said...

Oh I love both the french braid and the updo! That's a shame about your stylist, you think she would learn!

Girl with Curl said...

The updo looks really nice. I can see why people think it might take a long time. That's a plus that it doesn't.

Unknown said...

That's a great idea (about the braid thing). The last time I went out of the stylists I looked like a poodle. O:(

Unknown said...

I think updos are a great idea. We all get lazy days. I spend most of my summer in updos. It's just too hot to have my hair down on my neck.

Kate said...

I'm frankly jealous. :D I have a HECK of a time matching my hair color for hair pieces... and I even have to wear one for Irish dance competition (if I ever heal from this injury...). I think it's cool you try stuff like that!