My mother who was envied for her long, lustrous hair hoped that her children would inherit this feature. However, she was deeply disappointed when I was born with a head that resembled an egg. The elders of the family assured her that it was only natural for babies to have little or no hair and said that I would soon grow into a little girl with a majestic mane.
My hair grew longer over the years, but my mother was still sad. She had straight hair and had hoped that mine would be either wavy or curly, but it was willed otherwise, and to make matters worse, it was sparse.
My mother sought advice regarding what was, to her, the most pressing problem imaginable and unsurprisingly, suggestions poured in. My mother chose the one that best appealed to her. Being an avid gardener, she knew that frequent mowing made the grass grow thicker and greener. No trophies for guessing what she did next. I had my head tonsured a total of five times! After each episode, I had egg white rubbed over my tonsured head. Apparently, someone had suggested to her that eggs worked for the hair the same way urea worked for the grass.
When I was younger, curls were in fashion and my hair stubbornly resisted all efforts at being curled. I tried all home remedies, bought hair curlers and curling rods, but everything was in vain. My hair remained as straight as ever. Perming was the new trend and it presented to me a golden opportunity to have my straight hair transformed. It seemed illogical to go for an expensive chemical treatment to make my hair look fluffy, but fashion demanded it and I complied.
I emerged from the salon happy at having my hair tightly coiled like springs. Everyone agreed that the curls suited me and made me look much younger than my 40 years.
My happiness was short lived. My hair soon began to fall out and I stared at the horror of going in for another expensive treatment — hair weaving. For those of you who are wondering what on earth that is, it is a method of growing hair on bald patches. It is another matter altogether that an expert ‘weaver’ in town is bald! I needed a quick remedy for my rapidly vanishing crown of curls. And thus began my ordeal of approaching beauty salons, each one more expensive than the other. All kinds of remedies were suggested.
The more complicated the names of the procedures, the bigger the hole they burnt in my pocket. To top it all, I continued with the perming process. After all, who likes to look old? I listened to every bit of advice top hairstylists in my city doled out, but the only noticeable change was my diminishing bank balance. Much to my chagrin, some beauty therapists did the vanishing act as soon as I entered their salons. My hair was ruined and I wished I hadn’t naively bought in to the fashion industry’s whims.
Then the impossible happened and straight hair became the new trend. Everyone under the sun is in a mad rush to get their hair straightened. Unfortunately for me, my hair now is neither straight nor curly. It now resembles a tuft of very dry grass.
Now, a friend of mine blessed with thick, curly hair is thinking of getting her mane straightened and my words of caution have been dismissed. A beauty salon somewhere is having the last laugh!
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