Save your hair

Sometimes I feel the need for a total change. For many years, I wore my hair short in a lop-sided bob — one side visibly longer than the other. I thought having my hairstyle uneven meant I was different.

Also because I was single for so many years I could color my hair all shades. I would go to Toys R Us and get the spray-on colors fashionable for Halloween and for Cosplay, the game grown-ups play and dress according to their favorite heroes like Batman, Robin, Superman and Spider-Man. If my figure were better I would dare to dress like Cat Woman, but I’m too old to have that much fun. So I just use spray-on colors. My favorite color is purple. But once I had my hair dyed blue-green. That was when I had a show at the Happy Garden Café.

But I got married. In a sense I became more traditional. My husband felt my lop-sided haircut looked like a teen-aged boy who smoked Vape so I decided to grow my hair. But my hair is straight, has always been very thick and very straight. I used to part it in the middle and wear a ponytail. I did that again and sort of liked it but my friends said I looked very old wearing my hair that way. So when I was in San Francisco recently I bought a wig — short but with straight bangs. Everyone liked that look. Except I felt bound and hot wearing it. So I kept it and am saving it for special occasions or when I want to go somewhere and not be recognized. The full bangs really change your face.

Lately I decided to have my hair curled. It was long already, almost to my shoulders. First I went to my old hairdresser. I said “I want it layered with tight curls but not frizzy.” He cut it, curled it and made me look as crazy as Noli Me Tangere’s Sisa. The curls were not as tight as I wanted and the hair was not layered as short as I wished. We did it again. It improved a little but it was still not what I wanted. I wanted curls that tumbled, that looked like I just woke up but was ready to sleep again. That kind of sexy look. But it seemed that was impossible to imagine so it wasn’t happening.

I lived with that hair for four months. But my hair grows very fast despite my age. You know, after you’re dead, your hair and nails continue to grow for a long while. My hair and nails behave that way even if I’m still alive. I decide to try another salon. I remember when I was much, much younger I would have my hair curled every four months. Apparently that was once upon a time. Today, it seems, times have changed.

The lady who was going to curl my hair said it was too soon. Maybe it would not curl well, maybe it would break. “But my hair is very strong,” I said. After a bit of discussion she agreed and curled it again. This time my hair that used to be oily became so dry. It lost all its shine. I was told to soak it in coconut milk — not canned but fresh — for a few hours a week until some of the oiliness was restored. But who will make the coconut milk? Me? You have to be kidding. There must be other ways. I took time to try to imagine what I could do to restore the shine and bring out the curliness in my hair.
You know what I do? I shampoo, air-dry, then I put in tons of conditioner. I don’t wash off the conditioner. It seems to work. But wait — even if she cut it well, it wasn’t enough. 

Then Sunshine Place called to ask my husband and me to please go to Ricky Reyes who asked for a senior couple to feature on his Sunday show. “Please!” they said. “You’re the only senior couple we know.”

Ricky Reyes cut off quite a bit of my hair, successfully layering it to the length I wanted. I didn’t like the way we looked in his show but I liked what he did to my hair. So now I look like I just woke up and am ready to sleep again. But it still requires a ton of conditioner that I don’t wash off.

Why am I writing this? Some of my readers write to thank me for my articles because they are wise. Here’s today’s bit of wisdom. If your hair is curly but very dry, use conditioner but don’t rinse it off. It stays on well. It doesn’t stain your pillowcases. Your hair smells good. Use conditioners as often as you need to. They work miracles on your hair.

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