"What-what is that girl with curled hair? I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly!" ~ Jane Eyre

Yesterday during my date with D.G., my hair briefly became a topic of conversation. I was more interested in his hair, and mussed it up to his dismay because he ever so subtley made sure he fixed it after I was done.

I can't wait to do that to him again.

I had missed my salon appointment yesterday morning and was peevish about that, especially because I had wanted to have my hair blown out straight.

While I would never think about permanently straightening my curls, sometimes its nice to have a break from them. Being only a child in the 80's, I missed my moment of glory when perms were in style and every woman was spending tons of money to have what I have naturally. If only we could go back to the days when Kelly McGillis' big hair were the object of desire for Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun.

Jenniter Aniston's "Rachel" look of the 90's was hard on us curly haired girls. I don't know if we have recovered yet, but we are getting there.

But one must look to the past to understand that the trend of straight hair by no means measures up to the history of curly hair as a trend. These curls are what women throughout history wanted. Curly haired girls, get your notebooks out. Its time for a history lesson:

ANCIENT GREECE: Greek women wore their hair long and in corkscrew curls.
MEDIEVAL: Women of the upper social classes wore their hair in loose curls.
RENAISSANCE: Ancient greek curls were revived by women.
ELIZABETHAN: Queen Elizabeth wore her hair curled, and women during this time strove to imitate her curly hair
BAROQUE: Women had curls that trimmed their foreheads and fell like ringlets down the sides of their faces. Curly hair was the rage of this era.
REGENCY: Regency girls often curled their hair in the front.
VICTORIAN: Barley curls or Sugar curls were long curls worn throughout the century

(source: http://www.crystalinks.com/hair2.html)

Curly hair is also known to be symbolic of sex.

The out of control, wild look is indicative of bed head. In the above quote from Jane Eyre, Brocklehurst sees Julia's hair as being defiant. Though she is not, curly haired women are known to be wild, defiant, slightly unpredictable. Does this theory apply to me? Decide for yourself.

But my thoughts about my curly hair are done.

They turn back to D.G.'s. His short, greying, thick hair is perhaps something these curls want to tangle with.