Most girls picture “Naturally curly hair” to look a little like this..

But don’t understand that, 90% of the time, it looks like this.

We know it all too well..

“5 Easy Steps to Voluminous Curls”

“No Heat Beach Waves”

“Victoria’s Secret Curls Made Easy”

Is there really anything easy about it though? Here are the most common phrases you’ve probably heard in the past 3 days.

1. “I’ll wait til the morning to shower.”

Wait, what? Why can’t you just shower at night?

You see, if I shower at night, that means my hair will be slightly wet when I go to sleep. And even if one strand is still wet, I’ll end up waking up looking like I have a mop on my head.

2. “The Pineapple”

Your average girl might understand this phrase as a fruit, but for us, it’s a way of life. There is no means of sleeping without throwing all of our hair into a huge, crazy ponytail on the very top of our heads.

For all of you that don’t know, it looks a little like this:

Well, we can pretend it does, at least.

3. “Did you get a haircut?

No, actually I didn’t. You know, my hair actually does this magic trick where it grows and shrinks. One day, it might be halfway down my back. The next it’s only to my shoulders. Kinda like..curls. Weird, huh?

4. The mid-day ponytail crease.”

Let’s face it - we’ve all had those days where we just wanted to pull up our hair and chill. Whether it be in a messy bun or a high ponytail, it still looks great..

until it’s time to take it out and realize the giant bumps through your hair. Won’t be able to get those out until a shower.

5. “Your hair looks lighter.”

Depending on the amount of shampoo or conditioner used the night before, curly hair could go from extremely dark to blonde as the sun real quick. Especially if there is a bit of highlights in it.

6. “The headband headache.”

Thick hair comes with a lot of responsibilities..like knowing whether or not to wear a headband. Yes, it may be stylish, but is it worth the pounding headache which results hours later?

If it’s a really cute one, and compliments my outfit, maybe.

If not, I’ll just stick to having hair in my face.

7. “Curling curly hair is a double negative.”

You know the feeling you get when you have a great hair day? It feels like nothing can go wrong - until you realize one of your accent strands of hair is actually a frizzy mess. Why not just curl it?

Oh, maybe because it ends up looking like a crimped mess. Kinda like those wands from 2007 that made straight hair look like it was styled by an ironing board.

Never mind.

8. “Braids. Enough said.”

I can’t think of a day when I wasn’t scrolling through Pinterest, envious of all the girls and the endless opportunities for their pin straight locks. “I can do that,” I’d say to myself. “It looks easy enough.”

Three strands later, I’m wondering how I will ever get my hair out of this tight knot. I’ve contemplated cutting some of it altogether.

9. “Beach waves are actually a thing.”

There’s something about salt water that actually somehow puts my frizzy mess at ease. My hair feels much lighter and bouncier than it ever would with product in it. It’s like the beach can do no wrong - even with crazy hair like mine.

10. And then there’s my all time favorite -

“Is that your natural hair?”

Actually, I wake up every morning at 4am, shower, blow dry, then straighten my hair. After that, I take my wand on the medium setting, and curl each individual hair, so that it somehow looks put together but messed up at the same time. I even tousle it around in my fingers a little bit to give it that “edgy” look.

Of course this is natural. Is that even a question? I don’t have time in the morning to curl my hair every single day. And if you do: good for you. But being a teenager is hard enough, I wouldn’t want the added stress of trying to have that “effortless” hair look. I’ll take the compliment though.