I think I’ve been converted to the dark side. The dark side of personal grooming in which one actually cares enough about one’s appearance to actually put forth some kind of effort. Particularly in the hair department. I’m a wash and wear girl. Well, a wash and blowdry and wear because if I don’t blowdry it’s just…There are no words. I will admit to spending about 3 minutes with a curling iron also, but only if I’m leaving the house and then only if I’m going somewhere where I think there’s the slightest chance I might run into someone I know and only if the someone I know would be someone I would care about not looking scary in front of. I’m not sure who that someone would be, but I ready myself to the appropriate degree just in case.
Anywho, I had my hair done today—nothing major, my usual weave and a good trim with some extra little fringing action around the face. But today instead of the usual blowdry, my sister (my oldest sister who does my hair and is the awesomest of all hair doesers) used a flat iron. I had heard tale of these flat irons, but immediately dismissed it as something that other people do. It seemed like an extra step of hair grooming that I was just not up for because it would be like an extra step and therefore take additional effort. Effort. Effort is not my middle name. Neither is extra step. Or hair grooming really. But she did the extra step and holy hot dog on a stick! My hair is like a whole other entity. Or rather it’s no longer a whole other entity. (Choose which ever one sounds more impressive to you.)
I don’t know how it does what it does. But the funky wave that’s not really wavy enough to be considered a purposeful hair style choice, but too wavy to be considered attractive without some serious taming, is gone. All the little fly away frizzies and poky wirey stray hairsies—gone. My sister said something about a ceramic something something and an ionic something or other and a lot of other hair mumbo jumbo that I can’t even repeat because I didn’t understand. All I can say is that I love my hair and I have commissioned my sister to procure for me one of these mysterious and magical wonders of the world that are the flat irons. And then I will be one of the others. But an other with fabulous hair!
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June 25, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Susan M
That’s awesome. I’ve about given up on caring about my hair. I never even blow it dry. I’ve been trying to grow it out but it gets to a certain length and starts driving me INSANE and I end up chopping it off again. I’m at that length now and so far I’m dealing with it. Just don’t expect me to look presentable any time soon.
June 25, 2008 at 5:05 pm
cheryl
I think we need to see a picture of your hair, bythelbs. So we can judge for ourselves if you have truly become an “other;” We need proof, you know.
June 25, 2008 at 5:09 pm
madhousewife
I got my hair flat-ironed a couple years back. That was different. It was cool enough that I went and got a flat iron, but I didn’t use it often because I could never make my hair as flat as the hairdresser did. Then I lost the flat iron in the fire. I have not replaced it. I think my hair looks better curly anyway. When I bother curling it.
June 25, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Boquinha
Omigosh, I could be your internet twin based on this post alone!! (Never mind that we could be twins based on the I’m-totally-obsessed-with-finding-lost-items posts . . . ).
YES! I’m an other, too! I became an other when a good friend took me to a fancy salon as a birthday present and they used one of those things on me!
Truth be told, before that experience, I thought it was an iron as in the kind you use to press clothes. So every time someone would crack about Ryan Seacrest and a flat iron, I pictured him resting his noggin’ on a clothes ironing board with some stylist “pressing” his hair.
June 25, 2008 at 5:24 pm
bythelbs
Susan—I go through growing out/chopping off cycles. I’m actually due to chop off—my hair is the longest it’s been in a while. But now that I’ve discovered the flat iron, I might keep the length for a bit.
Cheryl—I’m not sure I’m ready to risk a picture. What if you don’t think my hair is as awesome as I do? Then the whole illusion would be shattered. Better to have you just assume it’s as awesome as I claim. You can trust me, right? Haven’t we established a circle of trust here at bythelbs?
Mad—I’m having a hard time imagining you with straight hair. The whole concept is completely mind-boggling for me. Do you have any photos? Or life-like illustrations?
Boquinha—I imagined the flat iron apparatus to be a lot larger than it is, with ginormous plates, but it’s about the same size as my big barrel curling iron. I think they did actually used to use a clothes iron, back in the day.
June 25, 2008 at 6:13 pm
kamillivanilli
Welcome, welcome to the wonderful world of flat ironing. It will change your life. I, too, was introduced to the wonders of flat ironing a few years back at a salon…and I was like…what the? how did did you make my hair look like that? Of course, we can never recreate what the hairdressers do to our hair (and often, we don’t want to recreate what they do…)…But when I actually take the time to flat iron it, it always makes me look and feel 10 times better. Granted….that’s not really sayin’ much…but at this stage of my life…hell yeah…every little bit counts.
June 25, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Julie
Oh, the flat iron. And oh, to use one again. The plates are too big on mine to really bother with anymore, but when I get one of those little guys like you’re describing, I’ll probably start straightening again. Because, really, there’s no comparison. That thing is a gift from the hair gods.
And I second that emotion, Cheryl. Picture time….
June 26, 2008 at 2:39 am
Alison Wonderland
My hair is already straight. Straight, straight straight. My hair is straighter than James Bond, straighter than a ruler, straighter than… you get the point. So I have no need for a flatiron, and curling irons don’t even make a dent. But it does make it easier to get away with the wash and wear. And I’m truly wash and wear, often I don’t even bother to brush it, in order to tangle it would need to bend and twist and I don’t know if I mentioned it but my hair is very very straight.
June 26, 2008 at 11:42 am
Jumbo Shrimp
I love my flat iron too. Sounds like we have very similar type hair. It’s not wavy enough but wavy enough to cause problems. My hair is too short right now to warrant too much use from the flat iron but when it gets long enough to have another hair cut that won’t make it too short again I will be employing the flat iron much more again.
June 26, 2008 at 8:31 pm
evitafjord
Huh, my SIL said the same thing to me a couple of months ago. My hair is already straight to most people, but still gets those things that go the wrong way or make it POOF. Maybe I will have to get one after all.