A Daily Conversation with a Stranger

“You have such pretty hair!”

It goes in one ear and out the other.

Yes, my hair is equal parts curly and straight — part of my cocktail of mixed genes. In other words, it came with the skintone.

“Like seriously, it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

I don’t know what to say. ‘Thank you’ cant be enough when you can feel someone’s envy radiating off their skin…or scalp.

“I wish I could have hair like yours.”

No comment.

“You should be thankful you didn’t wind up with nappy black girl hair.”

Huh?

“I bet you want to straight hair don’t you?”

Um, no?

“Always want what we can’t have.”

But…didn’t you just?

“How long does it take you to straighten it?”

Too damn long.

“Can I straighten it sometime?”

If you wanna spend 3 hours on my hair then sure.

This is usually how the conversations go.

My hair tells a story all it’s own,

of color and cuts and white girl perms,

of (unfortunate) bangs and of (unplanned) dreadlocks

and too many broken brushes.

Every little mixed girl goes through the dilemma of figuring out her hair.

Which products in which order? When and with what to brush with? How frequent should you wash? How to style? Blow dry? Diffuser? Curlers? Wrap? Comb? Mousse? Gel? Detangler? Leave-in Conditioner?

No girl has any clue, hence my middle school hairdo: the ponytail.