“She has naturally curly hair,”\u00a0my mother would say\u00a0with great sadness in her voice\u00a0 when she spied a young person with\u00a0curls.\u00a0 She made it sound\u00a0like a curse.\u00a0\u00a0 Mother had curls of the type that\u00a0sprang in tight spirals\u00a0directly from the scalp and she hated them.\u00a0\u00a0 She did battle with her hair daily.\u00a0 Her own mother urged her to wear her hair cropped short and just be done with\u00a0the whole thing, but mother craved shoulder-grazing styles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was born at the wrong time for her hairstyle to be\u00a0considered\u00a0stylish.\u00a0 The only curls my\u00a0mother’s mother wanted to see were\u00a0the tiny half moons that women plastered to their foreheads\u00a0while the rest of the hair was smoothed into a bob.\u00a0 Those\u00a0little spitcurls\u00a0in front my grandma\u00a0called “beau catchers” and they were meant to lay there\u00a0dutifully and not pop\u00a0right back up like\u00a0mother’s did.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mother was\u00a0a performer and\u00a0hours before every appearance\u00a0 she could be found\u00a0fighting to hold down her fluffy hair with Vaseline or other goop.\u00a0 She was often in tears as we\u00a0traveled through\u00a0the humidity of the deep south.<\/p>\n
During my high school years, once again, naturally curly became an epithet.\u00a0 A\u00a0yearbook reveals row upon row of girls with hair freshly flattened (ironed)\u00a0and plastered as close to the head as possible.<\/p>\n
“Naturally curly” was a good thing\u00a0again years later,\u00a0“natural”\u00a0I guess, \u00a0being the blessing, instead of\u00a0the perms we felt we had to get\u00a0in the 70’s in order to make our hair big and frizzy.\u00a0 We carried picks in our purses instead of combs or brushes, in a futile\u00a0attempt to simulate\u00a0huge\u00a0Afros.<\/p>\n
My granddaughter\u00a0has naturally curly hair.\u00a0 It’s not like her great-grandmother’s.\u00a0 This little girl’s hair starts out silky and then waves and curls\u00a0at the end.\u00a0 Instead of stopping in tight spirals just above the shoulders, the way mother’s did, the little one’s\u00a0hair comes nearly to her waist.\u00a0\u00a0 The four year old loves her curls.\u00a0 She treats her hair like a dear companion.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s\u00a0the occasional griping about sitting in the tub while her mommy\u00a0conditions it, but overall, she\u00a0likes and accepts her hair just\u00a0the way it is.<\/p>\n
We clip it back\u00a0 so the hair\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0fall into her cereal, and she\u00a0removes the clips\u00a0and expertly tucks the hair behind\u00a0her small ears.\u00a0 She’s in control of her own\u00a0crowning glory.\u00a0\u00a0 For school we put it up high in ponytails because there’s so much hair we fear she’ll get caught up in playground equipment.\u00a0 But negotiation is required – about what color the ponytail holders and clips will be and how long they must stay in.<\/p>\n
It’s good to see a little girl with no negative hair issues.\u00a0 In fact, so far we see no appearance issues of any kind.\u00a0 One day she wants to wear jeans and a tee shirt with a picture of construction equipment on the front, and tiny black “biker” boots.\u00a0 Another day it’s a dress over leggings and princess shoes.\u00a0 But always\u00a0she prefers her hair floating\u00a0free.<\/p>\n
Curls are all around me these days.\u00a0 Women of a certain age are sporting silver and white\u00a0ringlets.\u00a0 Some are worn short and bouncy while others are wild and long.\u00a0 All are beautiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n