A couple of years ago, I learned of this invention that made my hair a bit more manageable: the flat iron. Yes, that baby has helped me quite a bit. I've learned, more or less, what style is best for my hair but don't think for a second that the faithful chongo is out of the picture. It's my go-to guy when I'm way to lazy to spend an hour ironing my hair; which I'm sorry to say it more often than not.
My mother, brothers, and daughter were all graced with straight hair. My dad, who passed his coif to me, has had to fight a whole different type of battle with his locks. You see, some while back (years and years ago) my dad started losing his hair. He wasn't ready to accept that reality so he tried to find ways to salvage his hair. He tried the more normal ways of fighting the war: Rogaine, special shampoos, changing his diet. None of them worked which lead him to try some, uh, unconventional methods.
There was some special jojoba shampoo he would go across to get, but there was a special ingredient that had to be added. My mom would crush birth control pills and add them to that shampoo. Apparently that was supposed to help his hair grow. Mmm, it didn't. Then my dad got really desperate and tried another weapon: cow manure. Yup, that's right, my dad rubbed cow poop on his head to combat his balding situation. Well that didn't work either. Since nothing really made much of a difference, my dad admitted defeat and stated that he was going to age gracefully. I, on the other hand, wasn't on that same mind frame....yet.
My personal hair issues had calmed down since my introduction to the flat iron, but they weren't over. Back in high school, I had convinced my mom to allow me to dye my bangs blue, just because. She agreed and I went around school with a blue 'copete' for about a month before my senior prom came along. Then that's when my mom made me dye my hair black cuz she wasn't gonna allow me to go to the big dance with blue hair.
My first hair-dying experience went smoothly, except I did have some residual scalp itchiness, which I thought was normal. After that, I never thought of coloring my hair again until the Fall of last year. I decided on a reddish brown (my hair is a very dark brown) to try and change things up a bit. After I colored it I realized two things: one, that I didn't like the color and two, there a bit more itch this time than last but it was still bearable.
A week after that, I dyed my hair, again, this time black. That night I realized very quickly that the scalp itch was beyond what I had ever experienced. It got to the point where I wished I had a freakin wire brush to scratch my head. It was really, really bad. The next morning, my face looked a bit weird but I still went to work. As the day continued, my face started to slowly but surely swell. By the following day, my face was huge. It was a very sad day for me because not only did my face look scary...it was my birthday and I knew I wasn't going to be celebrating at all.
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| this is not me but the effects were basically the same |
Dicho y hecho, I ended up spending most of the day at the clinic. My one and only birthday gift was a shot, and not the kind you drink. There was no cake, candles, gifts, or even singing...nada. At least the swelling did go down. It went all went away, very, very slowly. That was my last adventure with hair dye...and the start to my 28th year on this planet.
Now you can understand why my heart sank a couple of days ago. I had been having a lot of scalp itch and I asked my mom to comb through my hair. I wanted to make sure that piojos were not an issue. It wouldn't be outta the question considering my daughter's in school and I deal with children on a fairly regular basis. So there my mom went in search and found nothing. Except for some canas (grey hair). Mom then went on to explain that when the dreaded canas start coming in, they can cause some itching. Great, just freakin great.
Since I, apparently, am allergic to hair dye, there is no other choice, but for me to accept my father's 'age gracefully' state of mind. That is, until either an all natural hair dye is made or when Kool-Aid makes a black-colored flavor (no one ever tried to color their hair with Kool-Aid?!).
I understand 'the beauty is pain' motto but yea right. I'll just embrace my unruly, cana-filled cabello.
2 comments:
Hair hair hair - the bane of my existence! We share more than you know - except I have the same amount of hair on my head than a wooly mammoth had on its entire body.
I too once had blue hair (when it wasn't fashionable, mind you, I am almost twice your age) that actually soaked in to my face by accident. I looked like a smurf for a few days.
I too have cabello quebrado that was complicated by having it grow to my butt - but I saved up and did the Brazilian Blowout (before I knew of all the formaldehyde in it) but it really tamed my mane. If you can find one without carcinogens, I highly recommend it.
I too used to have itchy scalp after dyeing but in your case, it really may be allergies. I used to do it myself during my "mourning the state of the world" period when I would dye it pitch black. When I finally grew up a bit, I went to a hair dresser that told me I was irritating the small cuts I already had on my scalp from all the brushing I would do to keep it down. I am nicer to my hair now and no more itch.
Good luck with your hair!
Perhaps I should let me hair do as it pleases. Maybe it knows better than I do and is trying to show me what's best for me...
And maybe it's the hair spray talking. Oh well. I'm just glad I'm not the only one who has gone to war with their hair.
Thank you for sharing!
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