Hello all. So today
my something new is how I chose, or rather chose by default, to wear my hair
today. You might be thinking, oh no –
she’s hit a new low. She’s blogging
about her hair. Before you judge, indulge me with your
attention. If by the end, you feel I’ve
wasted 3-5 minutes of your life, I’ll buy you a drink.
This morning I set my alarm a half hour early, as I
suggested I might last night, in order to write a quiz. The quiz, however, took more than a half hour
to write, so by the time I got out of the shower – time was in very short
supply. I rushed around getting dressed,
grabbing food, packing a bag to teach dance etc. By the time I got back in front of a mirror
to figure out what to do with my appearance, my hair was already halfway dry. Rather than straighten it out with a blow
dryer as I do every morning (it takes about 4 minutes) – I sprayed a little
hairspray on it, fluffed it, plopped my hood over my head to protect my still
damp strands from the elements, and ran out to my car.
The compliments started with my mom, although she always
compliments me, so I don’t know if she counts.
“Your hair looks cute!” she said.
Others quickly followed suit.
“Ooooooh! I love your hair today!” several students in my first period
class commented. “Ohmygosh we’re HAIR TWINS!” an especially exuberant student
in my fourth period exclaimed. In
seventh period – my hair started a discussion.
By seventh period, a sneeze could start a discussion, so this is not
remarkable. “I love your hair like that!!
Is that your natural hair!? Why don’t
you always wear your hair like that!? It’s my FAVORITE.” A couple of my colleagues also commented on how
much they liked my hair today. It didn’t
end at school, but continued to my dance studio, where one of my adorable
six-year old students saw me and immediately blurted “Why is your hair curled?
Your hair is always straight.” Not necessarily complimentary, but an accurate statement of fact.
The interest in and positive reaction to my hair when I
leave it curly always befuddles me – mostly because I generally feel less
polished and put together when I don’t blow it dry. Curls are my default setting in the summer,
but during the school year if my hair is curly, it’s usually because I’ve blown
it out and re-curled it. Crazy?
Maybe. But it got me thinking about a
phenomenon called "The Ikea Effect" that I heard about on NPR. The reporter explained the results of a study which
revealed an odd pattern in human behavior. It turns out we place a higher value on those possessions or
things we spend time and energy on – often overestimating or inflating that value. It’s the reason we tend to privilege our own
research in a project, think our dogs are the cutest, or believe the Ikea
bookshelf we put together is worth more than the $800 one being sold at Macy’s.
It’s not that I don’t like my hair in its natural state. In fact, I kind of like it, and it saves me a
step in the morning. But perhaps I don’t
appreciate it as much because it doesn’t involve any work. It’s so odd that I can’t see the value in
something that I haven’t spent ten precious minutes of my morning working
on. Others, however, have no problem
seeing the value inherent in my God-given hair.
Sometimes we need to appreciate things just as they are –
and some things in our lives just don’t need doctoring to be good. Our faces are pretty without makeup, our
bodies beautiful without Spanx. Our
family dinners are valuable without fancy food or place settings, and our
quality time with one another better without the background noise of music or
television. I might pull out my blow
dryer tomorrow, and I might not – but the positive reaction to my hair led me
appreciate exactly what I have.
Below is the curly hair that is the subject of this
blog. It might be the only “selfie” of
me ever published on the Internet. In
the future, feel free to remind me of its existence:
No comments:
Post a Comment