Y’all, I’m sorry to compound my extended absence from blogging (while I was preparing for, and then attending, this conference) by having my first return post be about not children’s books, but that other topic of much interest here, straight-haired people’s misapprehensions about curly hair. But I just got a haircut, and it kind of sucks.
It’s just… overly fluffy. And, like, why?
My theory is that straight-haired people who love curly hair do so for entirely wrong reasons, from a curly perspective. They envy us our volume, whereas every curly-haired woman I know has spent her life trying to make her hair less voluminous. This leads to incompatible desires between our straight-haired ‘dressers and we with the curls.
Or, as my friend Anna said more simply (if plaintively) upon seeing me yesterday, “Why do they always do that to us?”
-->Feed me text
June 25, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I have strange hair. It’s curly in humid places, and straight in dry places (like Germany). I really prefer it curly.
June 25, 2009 at 2:33 pm
That’s odd! Mine is wavy and fluffy in the humidity (fucken Wisconsin) and nicely curly in winter. Although if I’ve slept on it for a few days, it becomes quite straight.
I haven’t yet found a strategy for my newly puffy cut. Although it’s only been a day.
June 25, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Mine is wavy and fairly striaght (it gets straighter if I blow dry it) and pretty thick but it’s never been fluffy, that I know of.
Glad for an update. I really missed you guys!
June 25, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Oh yeah, I have the fluffy problem, big time. I find going shorter helps.
June 25, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Really? I was blaming a lot of the fluff on my newfound lack of length (which was motivated by the heat, and given the temperature here, I kind of think it was worth it no matter what it looks like; the only thing that makes me want to die more than stepping outside my house is staying in it; I lack AC). Maybe I just don’t know what to do with the short.
And Sadako: I’m glad to be back blogging! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll return to, you know, the actual topic of our blog.
June 25, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I honestly believe that most hairdressers have no idea what to do with curly hair – over the last few years my haircut strategy has been simply to hack an inch or so off. Anything more complicated ends in disaster.
June 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hey, even when it’s not books, it’s all good!
Even though mine isn’t curly, it tends to look bad if it’s too short. (Yeah, every once in a while I watch the Natalie Imbruglia video Torn or read Mary Anne’s makeover, and I’m all, ooh, cute pixie cut! But then it always turns out like crap. Long is definitely the look for me.)
Plus, do you guys also feel like it’s more work to have short than long? Like, it looks good at the salon but the next day…eh. Whereas with long hair, it pretty much takes care of itself for me, as long as I brush it once in a while and wash it.
June 25, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I am constitutionally lazy with my hair. This may be the source of many of my aesthetic problems. This short cut definitely seems destined for disaster.
Still, though: cool on my neck!
June 25, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I have fly-away wavy hair. I now worship my straightener.
Have been hanging out for a post all week–glad you’re back!
June 26, 2009 at 10:29 am
I love the curly hair posts! Perhaps we need a group blog on the travails of the curly haired woman.
One problem for me is that when the hairdresser washes it before cutting, it hangs straight because it’s wet, so he cuts it as if it were straight. I just sit there and go, “More texturizing! Mor texturizing! You’re not done yet, right?”
June 26, 2009 at 11:20 am
You know, I just wanted to add that while in the past, I’ve had my hair poorly “styled” (poofed up) in the salon, only to have it return to more or less normal when I wash it myself… so far that has not been the case with this particular cut. I think she really did manage to somehow cut it to maximize the frizz (excuse me, the delightful body that my hair possesses). I’d be impressed were I not so dismayed.
Granted, I can’t blame her for the fact that the weather here has been like living in a frying pan that God keeps taking a piss on. That is certainly not good for curls.
June 26, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I just wanted to add that I think fluffy is sexy! Work it!
June 27, 2009 at 1:49 am
Lenore: AWESOME (and: I’m glad someone does). I will work on workin’ it.
June 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm
…Okay, I just wanted to mention that Madison’s weather has gone from “Have you had swimming lessons? Because you’ll need them to move through the air” to actually quite pleasant, and my haircut is now looking rather cute. I revoke some of my invective at the haircutter.
June 29, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Will there never be photos to accompany this discussion?!
June 29, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Heh. I don’t have a camera! If I can get someone to take my picture, y’all can see it. I can do a super poofed-up version, too. (Knowing Madison, the weather will probably do this for me again soon.) I was, after all, born in 1983.
July 12, 2009 at 2:04 am
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