I grew up with my grandparents in a small town called Qualicum Beach, B.C.  My earliest memories of my hair were that it was long.  My grandmother used to rip up pieces of cloth and wrap sections of my hair around the cloth.  This was supposedly to produce ringlets.  I really don’t know how she did it, but I remember having to walk around with this entire cloth wound through my head.

It really did work well though, my hair came out in ringlets and I looked like Shirley Temple, with brunette hair.  My hair has always been naturally curly and quite thick, so curls for me are not a problem.  Perhaps, it is partly thanks to my grandmother.  I was told the old cliché of brushing your hair a hundred times a night to keep it healthy.  I did this every night when I was younger.  Then as I grew and moved into my teens, I began to use blow dryers and curling irons more.  I also used an enormous amount of hairspray.

At that time it was cool to tease your hair into the desired height and shape and spray it to keep it in place.  My sister and I would stand in a cloud of hairspray in the bathroom getting ready to go out for the night.  We both took pride in our hair and appearance.  We would even get some compliments on our curly hair.  The funny part is that when you have curly hair you want straight hair and when you have straight hair you want curly hair.  I could never get my hair to completely straighten, so I stayed with curly hair.

Of course time marches on and hair changes and matures and even grays, as in my case.  Now in my thirties, I dye my locks.  I have had varied hairstyles over the years, long, short, curly, straight, darker, lighter.  One thing that will never change is that my hair is a big part of who I am, so I will continue to take the time to make it look good, even as I continue to mature.