Curly Girl~

I'm a curly girl from birth. All my childhood photos are of this chubby little girl with curly hair. Well not much has changed except I'm a woman now. Still chubby and still curly. My dad has the straighest & silkiest hair that I grew up wanting. His ancestors are Mayan and I look mostly like him except for the hair. His mom and his maternal grandmother had long straight hair & his grandmother even has bright green eyes. But no such luck for this girl. I took after my mom's side of the family. My mom is curly and so was her mother.
Before I started having babies, my hair was thicker and heavier. The more kids I had, the finer and kinkier it got. My maternal grandmother had 11 kids so I remember her hair as mightly kinky and wirey. I wonder if I would have had 11 kids, would my hair be just as kinky & curly? For the sake of experiment, I'm having 7 more children. NOT.

As a child my hair was always neat in pony tails, pig tails, braids or barretts. My mom was good about keeping it neat and out of my face. In 2nd grade we moved to the beach in Southern California and during my high school years, I'd blow dry my hair for about half hour trying to get that perfect Farrah hair. I'd get the perfect hair only to walk outside into the morning beach air full of ocean spray and moisture..walk about one mile to school and arrive a curly mess. I'd walk straight to the bathroom to try and salvage it as much as possible. Not all curly hair is equal and my hair not only does something different each day & excercises the right to change midday but it doesn't stick to the rules of hair products made for curly hair. The label will say 'controls frizz', 'smooths frizz', 'makes the cuticle smooth'...and the list goes on but my hair is rebellious and laughs in the face of advertising. Why didn't I embrace my curly hair all these years? Why did I try and conform just to look like every.other.girl.at.school? What's wrong with original, different, unique, curly, savage like, the born to be wild, flying in the wind, every curl going its own direction, never the same each day, never the same one hour to the next look? Enlighten me please.My oldest son loves straight hair. A taste he's had from a very small age. His girlfriend has long curly hair like mine but she's nice and will straighten it because she knows how he likes straight hair. As a child, more than once, he'd see me straight out of the shower and ask me to "leave your hair straight that day". As if I've ever had a choice in the matter. I'd lovingly explain that my hair was made by God and it wasn't a choice I had but he'd still plead for me to "leave it straight and not to curl it that day." Oh how I wish I had a choice. Long, thick, silky, straight, glossy, draping, flowing, lovely hair that I've never experienced a day in my life. Did he know my suffering? No because he has said gorgeous hair that he inherited from my dad. Little bugger.

My whole life I've been told "I'd die for your hair", "women pay big bucks for that curl", "you're so lucky to have such curls" and the list goes on but I still blew it dry to get it straight. Of course it only lasted a few hours each day but I did like it straight. One of my closest cousins thought I permed the roots every couple of months to keep it curly. All our lives she thought it was a perm. It was because she had straight hair and wanted my curly hair. She thought all people had straight hair and only a perm could make it curly. That really cracked me up. Well it's only been a couple of years that I've learned how to embrace my curliness. Some days it looks better than others. Some days it's a smoother curl and somedays it is out of control.

Now, do I dye the curls or go with the natural "highlighting"?