A conversation with a client today about the frustrations her teenage daughter goes through because of her high maintenance hair, and how she wishes she had easy hair like her friends, made me think of Conan O'Brien's parting remarks on his last Tonight Show: "Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." I know it may seem like a stretch to connect Conan with hair advice, particularly given his trademark pouf of a mane, but his words actually convey a wise attitude towards haircare.
I sympathize with this teenage girl. My own hair has always required a high degree of maintenance. Even after I passed from my 80's "mall bang" phase, I was still left with curly, frizzy hair that took an arsenal of equipment and product to style. My roommate in college could just wash and wear her straight blonde hair, and it always looked fabulous. It was so unfair. I started getting gray hairs young, and by 25 was coloring my hair regularly. My former roommate still has beautiful virgin blonde locks that would easily cost $200 to replicate. Ridiculously unfair.
Listening to Conan on his last night, I didn't immediately think of my hair. But it's possible to extrapolate that nobody gets to choose what kind of hair they get in life. And for those of us who didn't get the kind of hair we wanted, it's true that if we put in the extra effort and take good care of our hair, amazing results are possible. So I need four different types of conditioner depending on the time of year. So blow-drying my hair involves a finely tuned strategy of sectioning, brush placement, and proper level of dampness before initiating contact with the blowdryer. It's not easy, and it's not fair, but when I see the end result, it looks great. And I'm happy.
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