My mother was a huge fan of Bollywood actress Jaya Prada n Sri Devi … and so was I.
In 80's and 90's Bollywood era; long hair were trendy and the movies have always been the trend setters in our country. The way the actresses had their hair done to the ubiquitous braids to the occasional bird's nest to the gajra in the open as well as braided hair ... You could see the waves of the latest hairdo from the films in college, n the roads, in the temple on Sundays and of course, at the parties. Ladies would spend quite an exorbitant amount of time on their hair and dotting mothers would spend an equal amount of time on their daughter's hair. I was one the easily-influenced-by-the-movies types who would see something new in the movies and start dreaming of it in my real life ... be it the houses, the clothes, the lover, the high-life or the hair and the hair-do.
The fascination for hair and stylish hairdo came to me in my genes from my Mom. She was fascinated by her hair and she would pay a lot of attention to the hairs of her 2 daughters – my elder sister offering her a dream hair to work with – long, shiny, cultured … while I was the nightmare – curly hair which refused to behave straight or get molded into a fixed hairstyle.
My Mom was so frustrated with my unmanageable hair that she even made me go bald a couple of time in my pre-primary-school days in the hope against hope that the new crop would grow glorious straight which she could work on (read: experiment on). But my hair turned out to be the proverbial dog's tail …
Once in primary school, a bald girl would look weird so Mom resorted to the then-famous 'Boy Cut'. I thought she was making me seem modern and fashionable while my elder sister seems old-fashioned with long hairs which were routinely braided and tied with the ever lovely red ribbons. It was only later that my boy-cut was just short of the total-bald therapy which my mom thought would 'cure' my serpentine locks. Another thing which I hated was OIL. While my mom, elder sister and my grandma would literally drench their hair with hair oil; I stayed away from oil on various pretexts. I just hated it. Hated the touch of oily hair, hated the oily-hair-look and even hated the chip-chip on the head. They used to try and explain to me that Oil was good for hair and its growth and health but the kind of kid I was … never listened to them (and mind you … I often regret that)
During festivals, my mom and my elder sister would wear the traditional 'gajra' on their hair while I was the odd-one-out with literally no hair for the gajra. Just imagine a gajra on boy cut hair! Can't imagine … right?? Coz that's plain simple weird. I would often feel bad about this and would even cry and throw a tantrum … and then mom would hand over a gajra to me along with a few hair pins. I would try to fix the gajra on my short hair and after several failures and hair worse than before; would finally give up.
I was very very jealous of my sister.
Primary to Secondary transition and at the age where I could 'enforce' some of my decision; I asked my Mom to allow my hair to grow so that I could also have long tresses. Gave her all sorts of reasons and convinced her.
She agreed. I was so happy. But that didn't last long.
I enjoyed my longer hair in the beginning and soon I had the pleasure of the long braids and the lovely ribbons. My mom and my grandma used to take turns at my hair and I felt sooo good at all the attention I would get when they worked on my hair. I realized what my sister had been enjoying all these years and what I was missing out on.
I loved the braids and my longer hair. I enjoyed the different kinds of styling experiments which my Mom used to perform on my hair. It seemed like another chapter in my hair's life. Only … the chapter was a short one.
In some years, I began to notice something strange with my hair. My mom introduced me to the horror called split-ends. I went to hair specialist and tried lots of different shampoo-conditioner combinations as well as treatments but nothing worked. Finally it was decided that nothing can be done so rather than solving the problem, it was decided to remove it all together.
No No No … I wasn't going baldy again.
The problem was 'spilt-ends' with the key-word 'end' so regular (monthly actually) trimming of the ends turned out to be the solution.
It was only lately that different easy-to-use products have arrived in the market which helps a girl deal with split hairs and other hair-raising problems. Wish some of these existed while I was a little girl struggling with hair problems. Dove has several nice products in their product-line which helps girls (and especially their mothers) deal with hair problems.
When I received the Dove Hair Therapy product focussed on split ends, it came as a pleasant surprise and when I started using it … I could really feel the difference in a matter of few days. In case you would like to know more about the Dove products .. check out the Dove Split End Rescue System link
The biggest relief I have is that I won't have to think about my kiddo going bald over hair problems
Writing this blog post about hair and braids made me really nostalgic taking me on a journey of my childhood and my school days. And now I am thinking of contacting some of my school friends who are still around and in touch. Will try and arrange a get-together and just catch up. Thanks Dove for this. Your contest is going to become a reason I am going to meet my school friends.
Just FYI kinds … The Single Side Braids look works best for me; pulling out strands of hair from right above each ear and braiding them. Tying them or banding the two braids together at the crown of my head for a simple, peasant-girl look. This suits me very much.
