My entire life, whenever someone has asked me, "What's your favorite thing about yourself?" I have never hesitated to answer...
My hair
Ever since I was a tiny babe, I have had a huge mane of curly hair. Just curls upon curls. My hair was so curly that my parents constantly struggled with it. My mom had a massive collection of detangling sprays and carried around a special comb for curly hair in her purse. There is even actual audio recording of me crying while my dad brushed my hair when I was six years old because it was just so impossibly thick and curly. I eventually just stopped brushing it when it became my own chore, to which my dad just would scoff and respond, "RATS NEST."
My grandma used to always tell me this little poem in her sing-song voice while she buttered and rolled my bread crusts (BECAUSE CRUSTS MAKE YOUR HAIR CURL, as she always told me since I would otherwise refuse to eat them.)
There once was a girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
And when she was good, she was very, very good
But when she was bad, she was HORRID
Then she and my mother would laugh because it was just so true about me. I just liked that it was about my curls and not how I was a horrid little monster.
When I got into middle school, I started getting bullied. Kids called me "Carrot Top" (I had strawberry blonde, curly hair, and since kids made fun of me for being PALE I tried to use self-tanner, which just made me turn orange. Hence.... Carrot Top) They even drew cartoons of me as a carrot. This was the first time I was ever self-conscious about my hair. I tried to straighten it for the rest of middle school, but I realized how my love for my hair was stronger than some stupid kids.
My hair has been many different lengths and MANY different colors, but always, always, it has been curly. With this much hair, it can tend to look pretty... messy. Especially since my hair can't be brushed. It may look like it doesn't take a lot of effort, but my hair takes HOURS to do. I am not shitting you, my hair takes around 6 hours to fully dry. If I ever tell you I can't hang out because I need to wash my hair, I am not joking. The most frustrating thing? It dries differently every single time. So my curls will never, ever look the same. It's a crap shoot on whether the 6 hours of drying is even going to turn up good results. But it's worth it. I wouldn't exchange my curls for anything in the world.
Now that I am a full-fledged adult, I have learned how to properly take care of my hair. I don't just spray it full of detangler and pray for the best. I have a very specific routine full of an insane amount of products that I follow religiously, and my hair has never been healthier or had better curls. Except for when I was little, why was my hair SO BEAUTIFUL when I was little for no reason???
