"Wow, your hair is so nice and thick."

"Those curls are so beautiful, I would kill for them!"

"You're the luckiest girl in the world."

These are all phrases I hear almost every day about my curls. People with straighter hair or thinner hair say that they are so jealous of my hair and that they would do anything to have it. They think my curls are flawless and involve no effort to attain. I am here in honor of all curly-haired curls to share what it's like to have curly hair!

First of all, taking a shower is a whole process. We need to find the perfect shampoo and the perfect conditioner for our curls. Once found, we can never use any other kind of shampoo ever again. If we dare to, our curls will turn into frizzy forms of what was formerly our beautiful curls. We also have to lather our hair in a certain manner in order to maintain our curls after we shower. And once we are out of the shower? We have to immediately apply any and all hair products. If we don't do it immediately after we shower, then they are of no use. It's truly a process.

Also, doing our hair in the morning right after we wake up? That's a whole other process in and of itself. Sometimes we will wake up, and it will be perfectly curly. When this is the case, we praise God himself and can go on with our day (I still usually throw it into a half up-half down pony though just to be safe).

However, 80% of the time, we wake up and our hair looks like a bird decided to make a nest in it. That's when it's time to bring out the big guns. Straightening iron, curling iron, you name it. Those perfect curls you see once we finally leave the house really took us 30 minutes to an hour to perfect. Think of the amount of time it takes to do our hair the next time you want to trade your straight hair for our curls.

Want to go out on the town on a windy day? Forget it. Our curls become a frizzy mess and transform those perfect curls right into the bird's nest that they started off as in the morning. Want to braid your hair real quick to get it out of your face? Forget that, too. A simple braid turns into a 30-minute ordeal as we try to get our thick hair to cooperate with us. Most of the time I have to settle for two separate braids since my hair won't stay in just one.

Also, the shedding is a nightmare. Even if we so much as slightly move our head, you know that an avalanche of hair is going to fall off. However, there is always a friend who is willing to braid our hair for us. They are the literal light of my life. They are willing to take on the beast that is my hair, and, most of the time, it turns out so much better than what I could have done myself. Honestly, bless friends who want to play with our curly, thick mess of hair.

It is commonly said that "you always want what you don't have." This statement is so incredibly true it hurts. But for real, think twice before you say you want thicker and curlier hair. Sure, it looks really nice when we take the time to make it look that way. But no one (except for fellow curly-haired friends) knows the behind-the-scenes struggle of having this hair type.