Growing up and living with curly hair is probably the hardest thing a girl can go through. Taking five college courses my last two years of high school? Easier. Working the high school sports section at the local newspaper when I know nothing about sports? Simple. Painting my nails on public transportation? Child's play. What is actually hard is styling my curly hair.
Growing up, I heard all the questions. How often do you wash your hair? Probably just as often as you. How do you brush your hair? I can't and I would never try. Why don't you straighten your hair? Because that takes a lot of time and I love my hair the way it is.
Having curly hair, you never know how your hair will turn out for the day. I do the same routine concerning my hair every day and it will turn out different every day. It will depend on how I sleep (since I wash my hair at night), it will depend on the phase of the moon, and it will depend on how the economy is doing. In conclusion, it depends on nothing and curly hair is something I have been cursed upon by the devil.
There's not a lot of media representation of curly hair. I thought I was the only one with this type of hair because no one else in my elementary school had curly hair. That was when I was the most impressionable and I thought I was alone with my hair. Actresses and models straighten their hair or curl their hair into what I call "fake curls." The only time I ever saw curly hair was when it was exaggerated as afros, frizzy, or seen as ugly.
If I had a dollar for every time an old lady told me they loved my hair and told me how much they wanted curly hair, I would be able to pay for them to get perms and for me to get my hair chemically straightened. Old ladies would stop me in public when I was little and I never knew how to respond to such a "compliment" of them adoring my curly hair. Why would you want this mess?
If I don't use a product or leave-in conditioner in my hair, my hair will be frizzy, knotty, dry, and unmanageable. I don't take spontaneous trips to the beach or jump into a friend's pool to avoid the aftermath of wet curly hair. If it rains, is windy, or is warmer than 75 degrees, I better have a hair tie to pull back the mess. And if I want to wear a hat, I better commit to wearing that hat until the next time I wash my hair.
I have been turning my straightener all the way up to 450 degrees since I was in seventh grade and bought a $100 straightener specifically for curly hair. Many friends and classmates would tell me I look better with my hair straightened. I look older, more mature, put together, but better? You're telling me I look better when I get rid of my natural hair to blend in?
Having curly hair is part of me and is my identifier. Like I said, there's not that many people with my type of hair. It's my hair. I was one of few people growing up who had hair like mine and even now I might hate it sometimes, but I'm glad to have something so unique.