Embracing My Natural Hair Texture

It's a well-known generalization that curly girls wish for straight hair and straight haired girls wish for curls. Now that I am embracing my natural hair color, it makes sense to lay off the heat tools and embrace my actual hair texture, which is really neither curly nor straight.

This is the hair texture I wished I had from the time I was a teenager:

Which is really, really strange, because I was a teenager smack-dab in the 1980s, when huge hair was "in." While women used orange juice cans and irons to straighten their hair in the 1970s, I was too young for any of that. No one was trying to accomplish a straight-haired look in the mid 1980s. But even while I was setting my hair in hot rollers and using gallons of hairspray (and waking up an extra hour early to get to school on time) to create the big 80s hair, I always thought that some day I'd accomplish this sleek bob. So, have I indeed accomplished this sleek bob? Despite this photo, no, not really. My expert stylist can (and did) achieve this look on me, but I literally can not do it myself, even with a rather expensive flat iron.

So, can I do curly?

Sure. If I "plop" it (the short definition of plopping: scrunching wet hair with product upside down and carefully placing it into a microfiber turban, then air-drying) and don't touch or comb or brush it. It really didn't look as good in real life as in this photo, since the other side didn't curl as nicely. Because my hair isn't TRULY curly, it's just a bit wavy. But not being able to comb or brush it drives me nuts. Not to mention, in the winter-time, air-drying isn't always ideal. So this isn't a great everyday 'do for me.

So I've decided to embrace is my natural waviness, such as it is:

It looks different every day, and as you can see from the photos, the left and right sides actually look different on the same day. But I can partially blow dry it (just for about two minutes to get some moisture out of the underneath layers that touch my neck) on cold days, or simply let it air dry. Styling is easy: comb in a little leave-in conditioner, a wee bit of gel, and gently scrunch for a few seconds. And, once it's dry, I can brush it. As often as I like. Ease in styling isn't about laziness; it's about going along with what my hair actually wants instead of fighting it. I feel like I'm inducing far less damage to it by obeying its commands. ;) As I get older, I feel the need to baby my hair, as it's thinner and more delicate than it used to be. So this is my natural texture. I still let my stylist do the sleek look for special occasions, and on some hot, humid days, I'll probably plop for that big curly look. But on an everyday basis, the irregular, slightly wavy look just feels like ME.