Embracing my unruly hair

“Girls! Get in the car!”, yelled my mother standing in the garage. My sister and I ran out of the room. “Coming”! I responded while running downstairs towards the car. My sister reached as well. As we settled in the car, I fixed my pony. Just then, my sister’s hair caught my eye. So straight, so fixed, always in place!

How did she do that? How does every other girl do that? This has been the dilemma of my life. I have seen girls (including my sister) have straight thick hair, then girls who have curly/wavy, doll-like hair and then there’s my hair; frizzy, always out of place, somewhere between wavy and straight.

It made me frustrated that I couldn’t casually leave my hair open while other girls did. Late teens, I started excessive use of hair straightener, I reached a point, where I wouldn’t leave home without straightening my hair. I was always on the lookout for a shampoo for poofy hair.

The weird thing was, that even after this damaging routine, I had A LOT of hair on my head! Interestingly, at that point, I wanted to have a hairfall so that at least , the poofed up look goes away!

In my early twenties, finally, my friends who got conscious about the volume of their “straight hair”, started complimenting my voluminous hair. In my mid-twenties, I was working and completing my masters too. So, it was 5 days a week at work and university on the weekends! No holiday and no time for hair care! That’s when I developed some appreciation for my hair, that no matter how many days later I put oil on them, they did get soft after washing and they still looked pretty voluminous.

Years later, when I had a baby and was going through post-partum hair fall, I dreaded losing the thickness of my hair. I finally started appreciating my old hair, but months later, the storm passed, the hairfall stopped, I cut my hair short and they still don’t look bad. I think I have made peace with my hair now! After all, they have been “hair” with me through thick and thin.🌸🙃🫠