It's true when people say "You're never content with what you have." I find this statement especially true when it comes to my hair.
I was born with blonde hair as a child. As the years went on, my hair became darker, more of a chestnut brown. My hair was naturally straight, I had straight-across bangs, and my hair wasn't allowed to go past my shoulder until the third grade.
Life back then was easy; I could get up, brush my hair, and then be off to school. When I entered middle school, I woke up extra early on days I wanted to straighten my hair or curl it. Life wasn't as easy anymore. As time went by, I became less content with brown hair and opted for a change. I started getting blonde highlights when I was in eighth grade, which started a vicious cycle. I was addicted to dyeing my hair, every three to six months. Each year, the highlights would get lighter and lighter until there was basically no brown in my hair.
The color of my hair may have changed, but the thickness definitely didn't. My hair has been thin since the very beginning. When I was younger, I didn't mind thin hair. I didn't really know the difference between thin and thick hair. I just figured everyone has the same hair, just different colors and lengths.
In high school, I constantly struggled with my thin hair. Most of the time, I saw it as a burden. Prom was especially difficult for me and my hair. I didn't have enough hair to do the styles that I most wanted. Many of the styles involved long luscious curls. I had the long part down, just not the luscious. This was very frustrating because I couldn't really experiment with different hairstyles. I went to two proms and I loved the way my hair looked for both, but it took me a long time to realize that my hair did look nice, basically until college.
Another struggle I've faced with thin hair is braids. I played softball in high school and a common hairstyle was two French braids. I could never do the two French braids because I didn't have enough hair. One single French braid of mine would often be the equivalent of one of two French braids of my teammate. At times, this would make me feel left out because I just wanted to look the same as the rest of my teammates.
Speaking of sports, I always had to have my hair up during cheer leading, basketball, or softball season. Sometimes, I would forget a hair elastic and need to borrow one from someone else. The trouble was, the person would give me a huge elastic that would be appropriate for thick hair, but with my thin hair, I had to wrap the elastic around five or six times in order for my hair to be secure. I learned very quickly that I should never forget an elastic if I wanted to be comfortable for the remainder of practice or a game.
Thin hair often gets greasier much faster than thicker hair, so that meant that I had to shower twice as often as people with thick hair. Showering more often isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was frustrating knowing that after one day my hair would be gross and need to be washed again.
When I got to college, I learned to love my thin hair. Getting up in the morning and getting ready got a lot easier, because my hair doesn't need much maintenance to get it to do what I want it to do. I can take a shower in the morning, blow dry, and straighten my hair in 20 minutes. Ask girls with thick hair how long it will take them, and they'll laugh in your face. I've heard from some of my friends that straightening their thick, curly hair can take them upwards of two hours to do. It's also not that difficult to curl my hair. Although I can't do it myself, having a friend do it isn't a huge commitment for them because it takes less than 30 minutes.
After I take a shower, I can let my hair air dry with no problem at all. Within 45 minutes of showering, my hair will be completely dry. My cousin, who has thick hair, will shower in the morning and her hair will still be wet when she goes to bed at night. How crazy is that?
While in the shower, I use far less hair products to wash my hair. I easily save money on shampoo and conditioner, because one bottle can last me a whole semester! Not many ladies can say that when they have to wash thick hair every day.
I feel like I am always going to have a battle with my hair. Some days, I love that I can put my hair up in a tiny ballerina bun on lazy days. Other days, I wish I could do a thick sock bun. I guess I just need to learn that God gave me my hair for a reason and that I need to be confident, and rock it the best I can.
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