Big Hair

A few years ago we had a large family wedding that necessitated a bunch of us staying in a local motel.  In the party were several friends from the mid-west.  We were all having a wonderful time visiting back and forth between rooms and shuffling kids as we dressed for the event.  In the process of removing a granddaughter from our room and into her parents room I bumped into one of the women from Iowa in the hallway.  She was standing gesturing with  a hair brush while talking to a friend.  She looked up at me and said, "I wish I had full thick hair like yours!"  I just started laughing. 

I wear my hair chin length and it is fairly thick, but that isn't what she meant.  You see, I am from the South.  That means I understand the concept of big hair.  I looked at her and said, "You just need to tease it a little."  She looked at me blankly.  "I know I'm old, but surely you know what teasing is, don't you?", I laughed.  She still looked bemused.

You see in the South, Big Hair, has never left.  We have tamed it down a little but we still like our hair-do's to be full...you know, big.  No Southern gal feels herself well dressed until her hair is fluffed, smoothed and sprayed in place.  We come from generations of women who have prided themselves on being well groomed, as only the South knows it.  (I'll bet you don't know the cut-off date for wearing white shoes --it's Memorial Day to Labor Day).  We tend to look at things a little differently.  Maybe it's the humidity but we have never completely given up our big hair, sprayed stiff,  even as the styles have changed.  We like our hair to be fixed in place.  Think Dolly Parton (from the neck up). 

That doesn't mean that we aren't stylish.  We'll wear the latest slick, smooth styles, but we'll just tease it a little on top to give it a little fullness and spray it good to keep it from going limp.  We just do these things.  Like I said , it's a Southern thing.

Needless to say, I didn't convince the two young women that teasing was back to stay.  When you are young and beautiful you can wear your hair any way you want to.  Unless you are born south of the Mason-Dixon line.