Plaits, shaves, & other hair adventures

I’ve been through a few hairstyles over the years.  During my younger years in Cameroon, I had my hair plaited from time to time.  If you’ve never experienced that process, that’s a test of endurance right there.  My Western hair was slippery compared to that of my African friends, but I’m pretty sure the pulling, twisting, and pain are all pretty much the same.  One thing that was different, though, was that it was impossible to find red plaiting thread to match my hair (not that I was concerned about such fashion details).

In my teen years, I experimented some more.  During my sophomore year, I let a 12^th grade Lebanese guy in our co-ed dorm cut my hair short.  In retrospect, one has to wonder who in their right mind would let a highschooler (and a male one at that) cut their hair.  But hey, he had skills and had practiced on other people (successfully) so I was ok with it.  Honestly, I credit him and that experience as a turning point in gaining self-confidence I didn’t know I was lacking and becoming more extroverted.  After borrowing jeans from a roommate and a shirt from a popular guy in the same dorm, I was the recipient of many compliments the next day at school.  I was surprised that people actually knew my name.  (How could they not considering how small our school was??  Who knows why I thought I was invisible until then, but it was a big deal to get that attention!)

About a year after that, I was even bolder and decided to shave part of my head.  Not an undershave, where the nape of the neck is shaved but can be covered if the hair is let down.  Nah, I went for my own style.  It was shaved on one side of my head and angled back across the nape of my neck to the corner on the other side.  (I guess it wasn’t enough to stand out as a white kid in Cameroon and Nigeria.)  I was at boarding school when I had it done, but my mom managed to fake a calm response when she finally saw it.  And she even helped with the frequent upkeep while on school break!  What a great mom!

Now, years later, my hair is long with the intent of having “options”.  Options to put it up, or have it down, or do lots of styles.  Sadly, the extent of my know-how remains with only pony-tails, buns (with or without hairsticks), standard braids, and straightening it.  My few attempts at curling, up-dos, and whatever else one is supposed to be able to do with long hair have been confusing, frustrating, and time consuming.

So a friend tasked me with attempting something this week.  I needed this assignment to make another effort.  I decided to go with something “easy” like curling.  I can’t say it was a success exactly.  Over an hour passed of trying to roll up sections of hair without burning my neck and leaving conspicuous marks.  As I let down each section it seemed like I could only get the bottom third (MAYBE half) curled.  I guess I couldn’t get enough heat to the parts rolled around on top.

Then the dilemma whether it was ok to leave it like that and go out in public or would it be clear to others that it was a botched job??  I went out (for a Thanksgiving get-together at that) and pretended it was exactly the way I wanted.  No one said anything.  And I’m not sure if I’m grateful, haha.  Were they were just sparing me what they thought might be embarrassment, or was it a look that actually seemed “normal”??  I have no idea but I think my next experiment will be an up-do instead…