Dutch hair day

Before I say anything else, I would like to thank everyone who commented on Sunday's picture. Due to an inexplicable aversion against posting my face online anywhere (you should have heard the fuss I made when I found out the university was posting the complete faculty directory online, I mean honestly, what is the point of the whole world knowing my name -and- seeing my face? Sheesh), I hardly ever put pictures on here, and then to receive as many compliments as I did when I finally do put one up is very encouraging.

Now one person asked me if I had a hard time styling my hair myself, and to be honest, that was one of my worries. Having been raised by a mother who, although she is the best mother in the whole wide world and beyond, had much better things to do than spend more than five minutes on her hair each morning, I'm a completely self-taught stylist who can at times be really helpless when it comes to doing her hair. I mean, there was a reason I bought into the perm craze of the late 80s and early 90s; a perm means you don't need to style anything, you just comb through it and go. Those were the days, I'm telling you.

Anyway, helpless at hair. That's me. I can't do a french braid, I need husband-dear's hands when trying to tie my hair into a bun, and can struggle with the most basics of hair issues, such as centering a clip on the back of my head. Fortunately, this country is awash in hair styling equipment, and I have a cabinet full of hot rollers, a curling iron, a flat iron, a regular hairdryer, a curling hairdryer, an impressive array of round brushes, as well as various bottles of mouse, spray, and wax. And so I have been able to reproduce Friday's hairdo, even though it requires the simultaneous use of a hairdryer, round brush, and a flat iron, pretty accurately.

And interestingly, no one here looks funny when I tell them how I get my hair to look this way. Every American female I know down here, and I mean every single one of them, takes at least fifteen minutes to style their hair each morning, even the ones with a short, straight bob (straight can always be straighter). Hair is a big thing down here. It's bigger than clothes, bigger than shoes, maybe not quite as big as personal hygene, but it's huge. Sometimes even literally. Seriously, you are much more likely to see someone in ratty sweatpants, flipflops and an old tank top, but with full hair and makeup on, than to see someone dressed to the nines, but with their face and hair all "plain Jane" (and when you do, it's more than likely me). My students take the cake on this. They will show up to class in their PJs, but with their hair looking as though they are ready to head to the prom: curls tumbling down from a perfect bun, makeup looking flawless, but their feet in a pair of bunny slippers.

Where this comes from, I have no idea. But I do know that it's that exact same focus on hair that forced me to learn how to use all these styling contraptions. Attending an American middle and high school meant that it was simply unthinkable to show up with my straight hair just hanging down my head or tucked behind my ears, as people would in Holland. Your hair had to look as though you had a plan for it. And sure, that plan could be the "fresh out of bed look", but that look actually involved curling irons, teasing those curls out, and then applying liberal amounts of hair spray. There was no real "fresh out of bed" anything when I was growing up. So I learned how to make my hair look like I cared, the hard way. I learned how to avoid "fishtails" (when you accidentally hold your curling apparetus the wrong way), how to not burn my forehead or neck when using a metal curling iron (pay attention), which hairspray did not stick (Dove), how to avoid the greasy-haired look (use baby powder), how to set my hot rollers so they would produce the right kind of curl (don't rush it), and how a flat iron can be used for a mild wave (just flip it in at the end). I'm still not great, as my hair today will testify (I really need to remember to not put my hair in a bun when I shower and then go to sleep with damp hair), but you know, I'm also not an American yet. So I think I deserve some slack. At least until I take that oath, I think I should get two Dutch-hair-days a month.

But having said that, it would be really nice if the perm came back into fashion. Or the Sinnead O'Conner look. Or even the Julie-Love-Boat-Pageboy cut. I'm not picky. So can we all make that happen please? Thanks.