I love the saying, "Youth is wasted on the young." It gets more accurate, the older I get. I want to add to it though. "Good hair is wasted on the young." Now don't laugh. It's true. My daughter, Kayla, has stunning hair. Hair that others (myself included) would kill for. It's long, thick, and has the perfect amount of curl to it. It grows super fast, and is usually down around her waist. It is perfection, and I'm lucky if I can get her to even brush it. It spends 90% of time in a hugely ratted mess, tucked behind her ears. Her daddy has spent most of the last few years threatening to chop it all off, and I have spent countless hours teaching her how to take care of it, and caring for it myself. She inherited this wonderful mane not from me, but from my sister. My beautiful size 00 (yes there is a size 00) sister, whom also does absolutely nothing with hers.
 |
| This is Kayla, and her gorgeous locks at only six years old. |
I get so frustrated with my daughter, but really, what kid realizes the things they will do as an adult to get hair they are even remotely happy with. Take me for instance. I have naturally blonde, naturally curly hair. I found a style that worked for me in Junior High, and wore it that way, almost every day. All the way through till I chopped it all off for boot camp. I also died it every color of the rainbow. In the Navy, I had to constantly have it pulled into a neat bun at the back of my head. A habit that was hard to break for a few years after I got out. I continued to bleach, and dye it with regularity though.
 |
| These are my curls, right before cutting them all off to join the Navy. |
I've always had this love/hate relationship with my hair. As a young kid, I had no idea that it was naturally curly, and could not understand why, no matter what I did to it, it was a huge frizzy mess. I blow dried it the second I got out of the shower, and thought that everyone's hair was curly when wet (I swear I really am fairly intelligent). When I finally realized my hair was curly, in Junior High, I had no idea what to do about it. Like I said I found a style that worked, and stuck with it forever. I spent a long time wishing my hair was straight, so that I could just wake up, run a brush through it, and leave. Instead I had to spend about 30 minutes every morning on my hair alone. Everywhere I went, people would comment on my hair, and mention how they wished their hair was like mine. Instead of taking it for the compliment it was, I would smile, say "Take it," and picture how long it took me to deal with.
 |
| My curls when wet. |
 |
| My curls when dry, since using Keratin products. |
Now, after years of bleach, dye, heat styling, and just plain age, I would give anything to have that hair, that I hated so much, back. I have spent so much time trying to get it healthier, that I rarely care what it actually looks like anymore. I keep thinking of it as being in an in between stage. I have noticed that the keratin products I was using to help repair it, have also been taking away my curls. My lovely curls, sigh. The ones I hated so much. I just want them back, lol. In the meantime, I'll just keep grumbling at my daughter, that she has no idea how good she has it. Good hair is so wasted on the young.
