Hair memories

Sitting here catching up on post about hair had me think about an incident when I was around 10. My parents decided to have a cookout with members of our church on a Saturday afternoon, my usual "hair done" day. My mom washed and conditioned my hair but then got busy and left it to dry without braiding it. Now I have mad shrinkage, my shoulder length hair looks like a two inch Afro when not stretched,  and let me tell you having to get my hair braided after it dries is a high level form of torture.

So the day goes on and I'm enjoying myself paying my hair no attention until guest start arriving, then suddenly I become hyper aware of my uncombed hair. To my recollection no one made any comments about it but I remember with the clarity reserved for mortifying events the deep embarrassment I felt about my hair being undone. I was near tears just because my hair wasn't braided or straightened. Looking back it seems nuts that as an elementary school student my hatred of my natural hair texture was already so ingrained that the thought of being at home with people I knew  seeing my hair as it is was highly embarrassing. One of the older girls realized my distress and offered to braid it for me. I lbaugh now recalling that she advised several smaller cornrows because it wouldn't hurt as much but I was insistent on just two. My head is tender just thinking about how much that hurt, lol.