flat iron curls, you make the rockin world go round.

Listening To: The General Specific by Band of Horses
Quoted: "Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." - CS Lewis

Biscuit says hello!!

Hey beauties! How was your Thanksgiving? Pie-filled and fantastical? I'm pretty sure I ate enough to hibernate safely for the rest of my life. Tis the season, yes? I have some thoughts to share about Thanksgiving, as well as some blinks I've been saving up. But I'll wait and unleash those next week. (They're kinda sappy.) Today, I would like to discuss the miracle that happened to ... my hair.

My hair is very straight. It kinks in a pony-tail, and sometimes it gets bendy on the ends. But most of the time, it's just straight. And this is fine by me. Like many goofy girls back in the early 90's, I used to perm my hair into a frazzle-tastic poufball. (I still remember scrunching my faux-curls with gel until they were the perfect crackly texture.) But at some point, thank goodness, I realized it was kind of dumb to work so hard against my natural hair. Perms are now stored alongside TGIF, slap bracelets, and Leonardo DiCaprio in the mental vault of my awkward adolescence. (Except Leo is still a thing, which is kind of cool, isn't it? Does anybody else remember him from Growing Pains?) Sometimes, however, I think it would be fun to do something different with my hair, just for a day. Usually I'm limited to messy ponytails, etc., but occasionally I've tried curling it. I've tried curling irons and hot rollers. I even tried some dumb "sock roll" tutorial I found on Pinterest. Those things ... did not add curl. They only added frazzle-bends. So I had all but given up.

And then.

I dropped by ye olde salon for a bang trim this week. My friend Bethany is an amazing stylist, but she's also fun and easy to talk to, so I always look forward to hair days.

We talked about books and Henry Cavill.

We talked about movies, and about how I'm going to see Les Miserables on the day it comes out, probably by myself so I can wear a costume and sing.

We talked about parades. I told her that I had a bad craving for a sweet, small town Christmas parade. Another stylist overheard my plea (probably because my "inside voice" is roughly the pitch of a fog horn) and told me about a nearby town with an amazing parade, where the floats toss off all kinds of amazing stuff. He said that he took his daughter last year, and she got like an entire set of My Little Pony's and a backpack full of school supplies. They throw rich stuff from the floats!!

(Which reminded me of the time in college, when some guys on a homecoming float got in trouble for throwing bouillon cubes instead of candy. Which is awful but kind of funny too.)

And then Bethany said, "Your hair would hold a great curl right now."

And I was all, "Pfffft."

The reason Bethany thought my hair would hold a great curl is that I hadn't washed my hair in like six months (slight exaggeration). But seriously, 2nd or 3rd day hair really is my favorite kind of hair. And I knew that, technically, dirty hair does hold a better curl. But my stickly-straight hair is independent, and will not be manipulated.

I shook my head, sadly and reminded her:"My hair won't hold a curl ever."

And then we made eye contact in the mirror. And I could see this eerie gleam fill Bethany's eyes. Like, challenge accepted. And suddenly, it was like the room magically morphed into an Old West movie scene. Tumbleweeds blew across the salon. Bethany pulled a can of dry shampoo and a flat iron out of her holster. (Totally making this up. She doesn't have a holster.) And she whooshed my chair around so I couldn't see what she was doing.

I was like, "It's not going to curl."

She said ... nothing.

She worked in silence. So I filled the silence with brilliant conversation, like so:

"So, Breaking Dawn 2. Have you seen it? You know what I still wonder? Ed gave Bella an injection of his own venom to make her live again, right? And he doesn't bleed, right? So where'd he get the venom? Did he milk his fangs? Also, do you think the Volturi flew commercial on their way to stare-down the Cullens? Or do you think they have a private jet? Because it does kind of make me laugh to think of them all waiting at the gate, and then boarding the plane at the same time, wearing their black cloaks, trying to shove their luggage in the overhead compartments, and fighting over who gets the window seat. I've sat by some vampires in my day, for sure. I'd actually prefer a Volturi to the magician I sat beside that one time. Have I told you about him? How he showing me ridiculous magic tricks? First, he did a card trick and I laughed, politely. But then I put on my headphones to insinuate that I did not want to be disturbed. And then he started pulling colored handkerchiefs out of his bag. Just one right after the other ... hundreds of handkerchiefs. It's good that people are passionate about their work, I guess."

And then ten minutes later she whirled me back around and ....

MY HAIR HAD CURLS!!

Look how it spirals!

I thought it looked super fun!  But, ever the realist, I said, "This won't last an hour."

And she smiled, confidently, shoved the flat-iron back in her holster. And then she said "It will last about three days if you don't mess with it too much."

Indeed, the curls lasted three days. They actually would have lasted longer but, eventually, I did have to wash my hair. Dry shampoo is an amazing invention (and it's something she says helps my hair hold curl) but alas. I have such fond memories though. The curls even bounced! For the record, I'm fairly certain that I won't be able to replicate this amazingness, ever. But I'll try eventually. Some of the fab folks in Twitterville tell me that flat irons give them curls when nothing else will, and also that there are lots of tutorials for how to figure it out. I shall figure this out!

Bethany the Hair Wizard is also trying to convince me to give in to ombre highlights, which would require swallowing some pride on my part. First, because I've joked about that word - ombre - ever since I first heard it. I think it's funny how certain words magically make things cool. Second, I feel like - on SOME people - ombre highlights just look like overgrown roots. Which actually does look kinda cool on some people, but not on me. Ombre hair, mustache icons, zombies, Gagnam style -- these are trends I don't understand, and don't particularly care to embrace. But Bethany is like, "You seriously think I'd let you leave here looking like you had overgrown roots?" She swears it can also be a very subtle, funky thing that looks awesome. I don't think I'll ever give in, but I'l keep you posted. Because I'm sure you can hardly wait to find out the answer.

I'll be back next week with some slightly more interesting posts, I promise ;) How've you been? Did you have a good holiday? Reading anything awesome? Do you have a favorite way to wear your hair, or do you just sit back and let it do it's thing?

Happy December to you!!