The picture frame that contains my most recent school picture also houses every one of my old pictures, stretching all the way back to kindergarten. Every year, when a new picture comes in, my family lays them all out in order on the table and looks them over. One of the most interesting things to see is the evolution of my hair. When I was young, it was bone-straight and brown. Over the years, it gradually reddened and waved, then frizzed, then started curling.

What I ended up with was a large amount of frizzy, sort of curly hair that I didn’t really know what to do with. So I put it back in a ponytail most of the time and didn’t think much about it, because my appearence doesn’t have a lot to do with how I feel about myself. I liked my hair, but I wished it would curl more and frizz less so that I could let it dry from a shower without constraining it in some way and then being tied to that style until my next shower. I’ve gone through years without being able to wear my hair down.

Then the other day I got this book that told me to stop using shampoo, and scrunch a little with gel.

And my hair started curling more than it was frizzing. And now I can wear it down. And it’s awesome.

I still have tons of hair, and it still looks kind of weird because there’s so much of it, but I like it. It’s so freeing, and I love how it looks. A lot of people probably won’t, but I don’t really care. I have hair ribbons, and they don’t. So there.