OK, here we go. It’s time to go public with the hair story. If for no other reason than to finally get it fixed!
All my adorable baby and toddler pictures show a little girl with straight, straight hair! And, since I was a ballerina, I kept it all the same length – long. By the time I was in 6th grade I hated that perfectly straight, always evenly cut hair soooo much, I did everything – shag, layer, perm – the works. And guess what, it didn’t take long before I hated that too. I will say this, I am fortunate to have hair that grows very quickly, though, so it didn’t take much time to grow out all the layers and try something different.

In high school I went back to the long and straight but I added bangs. Since my hair spent most of its days and nights in a tight bun on top of my head, this was fine. However, on that rare occasion when I wanted to do something different, my options were limited. I could pull various parts of it back in a braid, twist, French braid, French twist or ponytail. Variations could be added by going straight back or (this was the 80′s) on the side of my head. One night I was really desperate to do something special for a dance so I pulled out the curling iron (hoping this time the curls would last long enough for me to get to the dance). I let it heat up while I showered so it would be good and hot. I got out of my shower, toweled off and decided to do my makeup while my hair air dried a little longer (I had lots of very long hair). Now this next part may be a little graphic for some of you so proceed with caution… I leaned forward to do my eye make up and heard a strange sizzling sound. This was immediately followed with excruciating pain and I soon realized I was listening to the sound of my left breast being singed by my curling iron. My effort for beauty resulted in spending the night dancing with a tissue covered in Solarcaine tucked in my bra. Yes, Solarcaine stops sunburn and curling iron pain! (If you’re not humming the jingle by now, you may be too young to understand this post)

OK, fast forward a few (translate as several) years to the birth of my first child. For some bizarre reason, after my daughter was born, my very, very, very straight hair decided to get a little bit of body in it. Not bad. At first I just thought it was tired of being permed and decided to fluff up a bit on its own. Then my second child was born. I went from body to wave. OK, still manageable, but a bit… large. Then child number three arrived. Good bye body (hair and actual body), good bye wave, hello friz and, dare I say it, Jewfro. It’s ridiculous. Air drying results in a big frizzy mess, blow drying looks great for the first hour and then ends up a big frizzy mess, straightening is something I simply do NOT have the patience for and, you guessed it, still leaves me with a big frizzy mess at the end of the day. I have layered, thinned, textured, bangs, no bangs, you name it! The end result is always the same – dry friz at home in Colorado and big, fluffy, can’t fit through the door frizz in any place with humidity.

To add insult to injury, my girls have fabulous hair. My oldest daughter has perfectly curly hair that people pay insane amounts of money to get. Yes, she straightened it for a long time but has now realized how great it is (yeah, a boyfriend convinced her it looked great). My younger daughter has thick straight hair – the hair I fought with as a kid but would do anything to get back as an adult. Of course, it isn’t straight enough for her and she does straighten it – I don’t understand.

Please, I beg of you, help me!!!