What's That on Your Head?

For those of you who may be unaware... I'm a girl. I have been since I can remember... and probably way before that. The facts being as they are, you would think I'd be able to do girl things. Things that seem to be so much more instinctual and natural for most other girls out there. Most of you are probably thinking, "She's definitely got a particular girl skill on her mind... just spit it out already!" Well ok then. I will.

Ever since I was a kid I've had the hardest time doing my hair. And I don't mean I have a lack of motivation (most of the time). I like my hair to look nice. I try to do my hair. But I swear I lack the most basic of skills to do so. I remember trying to do the '80s bangs in elementary school. I'd curl my bangs, brush them up into the famous '80s pouf and hit it with a bunch of hairspray. Five minutes later I had a flat row of bangs that looked like a matted half-pipe. All my little friends had bangs that looked perfectly puffy all day long.

Then I got a perm. I was unaware of the need for things like hair gel, or any sort of styling product for that matter. My hair would look great when I first got back from the stylist, but forever after that it'd be a head full of fuzz. How was I supposed to know that I couldn't brush my hair out during the day?

In high school I finally grew out the perm and the bangs (you don't even want to know what that transition period looked like). I would try to make my hair smooth and turned under like the other girls but to no avail. No sooner would I finish curling it under then it would flip into random directions looking like I'd purposely made one giant strand of hair boing out the back of my head. Not cute.

My hair has improved a little with time (and the discovery of the straightening iron) and the concerted effort I make to watch the professionals at work. Even this has proved harder than I thought it would be. I've learned how to use a round brush to blow-dry my hair without getting it stuck... even the back. Though, it still never looks as good as when it's professionally done. And, well this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I don't know how to "tease" my hair to get it to look voluminous. I had to ask my current stylist, Tawnya, how to do it. She was very patient and showed me how to do it correctly. When she was finished, it looked great. When I tried it the next day, my head looked like a box. I've tried to practice since then, but have finally come to the conclusion that I will never have hair teasing as one of my great talents, unless you count "Hey Hair... why the long face?" HA!

I recently had my hair chopped pretty short... well short for me. When I first got it cut, Tawnya used the straightening iron to put cute little curls in the bottom. She showed me how to do it and made it look so easy. So, of course I tried to do the same thing the next day. It didn't work. Not even close. So now I have to straighten my hair otherwise it looks like a rat's nest, though the straight look isn't much better as it's just a short skip away from a bad mullet. I've been watching YouTube videos today of girls demonstrating how to curl hair with a straightening iron. It looks easy. I'm hopeful. Although that's what I thought when Tawnya showed me how so I'm a little apprehensive about trying it again. If this doesn't work I'm going to have to keep my hair in a ponytail until it grows out a little more and I can go back to using my tried-and-true velcro rollers (yes I tried those with this new 'do... somehow they're not working!). So keep your fingers crossed, this may get ugly.