On getting older

One of the great things about getting older is that so many of the things that bothered you about yourself in childhood suddenly FIT.  I had a beef with my height, my hips, my skin, and my hair.  Well, I married a guy who is tall enough, which nixes that gender expectation insecurity, and my skin cleared up 98% about a month after I got married. 

That leaves the hair thing.  I remember being in the second grade and feeling like my hair looked like Peggy Bundy from an old TV show, Married with Children.  I was the only child with curly hair in my family, and my mother had no idea what to do with it except brush it out.  Those of you with curly hair know that you NEVER brush out curly hair while dry, except in that rare occasion when you're doing a party trick.  I ended up pulling it back a lot and having a dry, frizzy halo all of elementary school.

I discovered gel around age 11, but didn't discover defusers until age 17. That's when I started looking attractive with my hair down.  Since I've gotten married, I don't know what it is, but I've grown my hair out for the first time in my life.  I have some sweet layers that my Mom can only put in right and when the curls are pulled straight, it almost goes to the bottom of my bust. 

It's great, but the most recent development is the best.  At least to me.  I find it exhausting to face the prospect of having to style my hair from scratch.  You know, shower, shampoo, condition, deep condition, dry, mousse, wait appropriate time, diffuse, wait appropriate time, crunch and hairspray.  It makes a 30 minute prep time into a 90 minute prep time.  I do feel like I look awesome at the end of it, but I still avoid it sometimes.  It produces a result remarkably similar to the image on the right.


Well, Dale and I went swimming earlier this week, and as I had learned as a kid, chlorine leads to damaged hair, so I put a bunch of conditioner in my hair to make it combable, and to keep it from getting damaged.  Little did I know that would produce curls indescernable from my 90 minute prep time routine. 

I love this situation!  Now the only thing left to figure out are my hips...