Reflection and Self-Reinvention Part 3: In Which I Do Something About My Hair

Meet the reason for all the hair and self image issues I've ever had: The (vintage) Herbal Essence hippie girl and her flowing gold locks. She haunted my childhood and pre-teen years, mocking me from the bottle with her perfect hair, skin and long fingers. To add insult to injury, the shampoo dried my hair into an unmanageable frizzy straw the size of a small continent and irritated my scalp to make it a miserable, dandruffy mess (years later I learned I'm extremely allergic to each and every one of the Herbal Essence products). Looking at her, I decided that my hair was hopelessly ugly.

It's been about 25 years since I've last had to deal with the green stuff and the girl on its label. My hair has been short, super-short, long and longer. I now know it might be my best feature and treat it accordingly, with love and products. But I don't do much with it. It's too long to be styled, and that's the whole point: it's curly/wavy (depending on the weather), thick and very healthy. I keep my hair clean and moisturized and let it be. It works for all involved.

But every once in a while I look at a photo of Jennifer Aniston and her $56,000 hair and wonder if I'm not missing on something. A few months ago I was especially antsy to try something new. It was probably a case of the birthday fever (which sparked this little series of posts) that caused me to take advantage of Sephora's friends & family sale and buy myself the ghd (another one of those companies who insist on lower case. I hate it) style iron.


The first thing I did was watch the DVD that came in the package.

I learned that the iron is a versatile tool and should be able to make my hair straight, wavy or create perfectly styled big curls (a feature I found oddly appealing, because my own curls can be a bit unpredictable and/or frizzy). The second thing I learned was how little I know about hair styling.

Apparently, before you attempt to use the ghd iron, you're supposed to fully blow dry your hair. I was sitting there staring at my computer's screen, thinking "you've gotta be kidding me". I don't even own a hair dryer, because using one on my hair is an exercise in futility. It dries when it dries, that's it. And I admit that on occasion I get to wash it again before the inside has fully dried from the last time.

So, blow dry, ha. Who would have thought?

The model in the DVD had her hair blow dried straight, to the point I didn't see why she even needed the styling iron. More straightening and you'd look like Pete Wentz. But I watched faithfully, taking note that the curling action is just like curling paper ribbons, the wave creation didn't do much to entice me and the part about volumizing made me and my follicles laugh. I've spent the last three decades fighting volume in my hair (see Herbal Essence girl above) and I was not about to stop now. Still, straight hair or big, shiny curls are more than enough incentive.

Since my hair was dry, I decided there was no better time to try. I plugged the ghd in, sat in front of the mirror and started working, to the complete astonishment of the cats who gathered around me for the chance to paw at hair strands and an electric cord.

My biggest concern was that the amount and length of hair I'm sporting would make the ordeal excruciatingly tedious. While I no doubt take a lot more time to sort out than the aforementioned Pete Wentz, the process was addictively simple and relatively quick. Strand by strand, starting at the left side, went through the plates and emerged miraculously flat. I got the hang of it in no time, which meant figuring out the perfect amount of hair for each iteration to make it efficient. No, I didn't end up looking like Jen Aniston, and I didn't put all that much effort into getting the ends stick straight because I'm too scared of burning them. But for the first time in years, my hair was straight and didn't require two hours of endless combing and blow drying (that was the last time a stylist had a go at my hair, full of courage and good intentions). I loved it.

My next attempt at styling was not that successful. I tried to create those beautiful open curls I saw in the DVD, but apparently, the iron was not designed to deal with 3 feet of hair. It looks so simple, and as I said, just like curling paper ribbons, but my hair did not cooperate and I started getting that toasted hair smell, which meant "stop, now!". So I did. Subsequent efforts didn't show any improvement, so as far as I'm concerned, the ghd is just a flat iron. But as such, it performs very well.

I like the straight hair, though my husband isn't convinced and the my mom flat out (ha!) hated the picture I sent her. Then again, she wears her hair long and curly. I don't iron my hair too often, both out of laziness and because I'm worried of damaging it. After all, I take pride in having a healthy, shiny hair that was never chemically treated in any way. But I like straightening the parts near my face to make them more ruly, and I especially like the option to have a sleek look when I'm pulling it all back in a bun and not feeling like it's messy.

Variety is good.