Hair

The first question I asked when my daughter was born, following the mandatory is she healthy inquiry, was about her hair.

"Does she have any? Is it thick?"

Turns out she had the kind of hair most babies have. A sort of haphazard fuzz sweetly ringing her head. Selfishly I was hoping she would be born with more. I wanted her to pop out with piles of hair with maybe a slight wave that grew thick and full. The kind of hair that would make people take notice. The kind of hair I had dreamed of my entire life.

Yes, I was living vicariously through my child before they had even cleaned the birth goo off of her. But only the hair part. I just wanted her to have what I never had.

To people who have thick hair this will seem silly. To my thin haired sisters it will make all the sense in the world. Hair is like the frame to the picture that is your face. Even more than that really because it can be seen from all sides of you. We are drawn to that thick tangle of hair. We love to see it in all colors and shapes. But mostly long. Women with thick hair know they won the genetic lottery and they rarely cut it short. They let it flow for all of us to admire and then act like its no big deal. The rest of us just like to look at it, in person or in commercials where it's blowing in the fake fan generated breezes. We all want to have that but it does not come in a can. So many products claim to help the thin haired ones but it's mostly a lie. No product can make up for what you didn't get.

Women with thick hair are in a different class. Thick hair means you can let it grow long and then casually put it up in a messy bun with pieces tumbling out. Because there is just so much hair it can't really be tamed. Thick hair always looks effortless. I'm not even sure the thick haired ones appreciate what they've got. "It takes so long to dry" or "Its so hot on my neck" are frequent complaints.

Thin hair requires lots of effort but it's mostly in vain. Hundreds of dollars spent on products that over promise and under deliver and you're back where you started. Looking at hair in magazine ads and wondering what it would be like to have a thick pile of hair that you could casually throw over your shoulders or lift off your neck because the weight of it was making you sweat.

I think my life would have been different if I had been born with thick hair. I know it would have made things easier for me as a teen. But I wouldn't have been forced to get by on my personality without that dreadful perm that promised to make my hair thicker but actually made me look like I had joined the circus.

The older I get the less I dream of thick hair. Yet every Halloween I pick a costume that involves a wig and for one day I get to feel that thick hair teasing my shoulders as I shamelessly toss my head about. It feels so good and I am sad when the day is over and I peel off the wig to my thin little strands.

As for my daughter? Turns out her hair grew in nice and full and I got to live a thick hair life through her. She can thank me for marrying a man with the most ridiculously thick hair you have ever seen.