Turn on the Light

My hair has some curl to it, so when I use a curling iron it takes to the curl rather quickly. I didn't realize how fast my hair curls until one day the General and I were each curling our hair in the bathroom, prepping ourselves for our various evening plans. We started at the same time, but I was finished with my whole head in about a third of the time it took her. She already knew this about my hair, but it really surprised me.

A couple of weeks later I was in the bathroom straightening my hair. The General stopped in the hall and we began chatting. During the conversation I complained that no matter how much I went over my hair with the flat iron, it just wasn't getting straight. The General suggested I go slower, and she pointed out that her hairdresser goes REALLY slowly when he's straightening hair. So I tried that and--surprise!--it worked.

After all this time using a flat iron and being annoyed that it never REALLY created flatness, it never occurred to me to go slower. I just thought the straightening process should work as quickly as the curling iron works. But it makes sense that my (naturally curly hair) would take to curl quicker than it would take to being straightened!

And with that, another light bulb turned on.

(Even though my hair is no longer blond, sometimes the blond in me comes out.)