Here's the thing. Hair is awesome, beautiful – can kind of make you feel like a mermaid.
But it also has a lot of downsides – curly hair in particular.
On the Internet, there is plenty of advice on how to have these perfect, movie-star curls. Don't use shampoo, use a bottle of conditioner, use coconut oil, don't ever shower – but no one just gives you a straight answer. They also rarely tell you how much of a pain curly hair is. I always feel like I missed the class that teaches you how to get hair like they have on "ABC Family" ("Freeform," sorry. Stupid name changes). So, here's the things that I have learned over the years and that a lot of people with straight hair don't realize about their curly-haired friends.
1. Humidity.
Curly hair works better in humid environments – or so I'm told. The illusive "they" always says that curls can have more bounce or whatever when the air is humid. Beach hair, right? But it seems like it's a 50-50 shot of it helping the curls or it suffocating you as your hair suddenly becomes another creature. Medusa and her snakes probably got along better than most people with curly hair on a rainy day. But, when you suddenly go into a city that has zero humidity, you get the opposite effect. The curls you've gotten used to suddenly are gone and replaced by this weird frankenstein mixture of curls, waves, straight hair, and a weird kink that won't settle down.
2. Haircuts
Pinterest is full of cool haircuts and styles. Bobs are in now, right? Or was that last year? Whatever is in, curly hair doesn't usually agree. If I wanted short hair, for instance, I would look like a mushroom. Curly hair has to be cut to certain standards or else it won't behave when it's in full force, but that doesn't always look good when it's straightened. So usually, you wind up with the same haircut you've had for a decade because you've at least learned how to control that. Somewhat. Yet, you still won't branch out to try to find someone else to cut your hair, so you wind up clinging.
3. Advice
I mentioned earlier that everyone has their own advice for taming curls. Everyone. But no one can give you a straight answer for "how can I get them to behave?" Products are expensive, hairbrushes are evil apparently, and shampoo is in one day and out the next. Too many cooks in the kitchen. To add on, there are over a dozen different kinds of curls and waves, and sometimes, you get the benefit of having multiple kinds of hair. Nothing is ever easy.
4. People not understanding
You people with straight hair are luckier than you realize. Having thick curly hair is a benefit in a lot of peoples' eyes, but no one understands that once you're committed to a hairstyle for the day, you're committed to it for the entire day. We can't take a ponytail out at dinner without a good 20 minutes of work to put everything back in its place. People don't understand that we can't just switch shampoos or borrow other peoples', because it just won't work the right way. Each change is stressful and often requires a week of adjusting and convincing your hair it isn't the end of the world. Basically, if I'm going to the gym in the morning, the hair is staying down and being in the way.
5. "ABC Family" ("Freeform") has hairstylists
It is a struggle to accept most days, but unfortunately, we do not have hairstylists who are going to do our hair every day before school. We are left sitting in a bathroom that's too small for all the products we have to use and a hairbrush that is held together by Epoxy, duck tape, and will power. When I straighten my hair to tame it, there's typically a patch at the very back of my skull that I can't reach no matter how much I contort. When it's curly, frizz is a thing very real thing, and it is never the same length at 5 p.m. as it was a 8 a.m. Hairstylists would help a lot, but unfortunately, they require food and can't be kept in a drawer.
