Since I could remember, people would always comment on my hair, its size, texture, color, and just about everything. I hated being different from everyone who had straight hair, and held on tightly to my friends who had hair like mine. Growing up, my friends with curly hair would discuss common misconceptions about kinky, curly hair. Here are 10 things people with curly hair wished most people would know about having curly hair.
1. Your hair is wavy, not curly.
I have to contain myself when girls with wavy hair compare their hair to mine. Think about the curly fries at Arby's. Are they "wavy fries?" No. Those little ringlets of potatoes are curly. Same thing applies to hair. Your wavy bed head does not classify as curls. If you can brush it, it's not curly.
2. Curly hair does not mean you're biracial.
This one hits more personally. People would come up to me and say, "Oh my gosh, I love your hair so much....are you mixed?" Seriously people? Both of my parents are standing right next to me as you just asked me that question and they are both white. Even then, go look at my profile and you will see that my skin is paler than Casper the ghost covered in sour cream. I just got really lucky and God blessed me with beautiful curls.
3. Do not touch my hair or I will kill you.
My hair has a mind of its own. If you anger the monster it is, I'm the one who has to deal with it and I will not like you.
4. I spend more money on a haircut than I'd like to admit.
Don't even ask how much. Just know that by the end of the day, I relate to Patrick Star.
5. I only have two hair styles and the magazines lie.
Up or down. That's it. My hair is either subdued down with mousse and hairspray or it belongs in an oh-so-special messy bun known as a rat's nest on top of my head. Once again, the hairstyles for "curly hair" in magazines are usually styles for women who have wavy hair.
6. I need combs, not brushes.
Spending the night and/or going out of town is a nightmare if I forget my comb. It's very sweet of you that you'd let me borrow your brush, but my hair will break it. Then neither of us will have good hair.
7. I cannot just straighten my hair on a whim.
Straightening my hair takes two hours out of the day. I can't do that every morning before my 8 a.m. classes. Straightening my hair is for special occasions and it loses the wonder of it all if I straighten it every day.
8. I don't own hair accessories because they'll get caught/lost in my hair.
I went on a church retreat in middle school and the girls in my small group found four bobby pins and a Cheeto in my hair. I don't put anything in my hair unless it's a scrunchy.
9. Pictures of me before high school are nonexistent because my hair was a small afro.
If my mom ever wants to put fear into my soul, she jokes about showing elementary school pictures of me to my friends. I basically looked like a less cute version of Shirley Temple.
10. I love my curls and wouldn't change them for all the money in the world.
My curls are messy and most of the time too complicated to deal with. But they are beautiful and rare and I don't plan on ditching them anytime soon.
