Last day of innocence

Right. No problem. I'll just go do this orientation thing tomorrow, and then things get started.

I've managed to do a bit of preparation, of course. For one, I did take care of the financial aid and student ID issues (terrible picture, but what can one do). Also, at the behest of my aunt and one of my cousins, I acquiesced to a six-hour stint at a beauty salon. The outcome was definitely interesting.

For those who know me, I'm blessed/cursed with a great deal of hair. But for its volume, I can't say it's much to look at... there's just a great big lot of it, and I wear it long, which I suppose does nothing but enhance the bigness of it. Also, I'm a rather big fan of all things low-maintenance, so I don't exactly do anything with it. Wash and go, you might say. At any rate, it also has some curl... a post-adolescence development... resulting in a good bit of unruliness and frizz. After one or two days of not washing it, things start to settle down and look a little tamer, but there's always that tenuous frizzy stage than makes life difficult. This, according to my aunt and my cousin, simply wouldn't do.

I was commanded to undergo a procedure known as Japanese straightening, which, now that I think on it, sounds a bit like something you'd come accross in sadomasochistic circles. It's sort of a backwards perm, actually, and, given the voluminous nature of my hair, takes approximately six hours to achieve. On the upside of things, it lasts up to one year, so one only has to undergo this lenthy procedure on a yearly basis. As a child, my mother often subjected me to perms of the poodle variety, since my hair was straight and boring. Now, with my unruly wave/curl issue, my family decided an intervention was in order. Hair straightening is often understood to leave the hair quite straw-like and damaged, and such rumors dissuaded me from entertaining the thought. This newer method, however, was reputed to have none of those negative effects, so I agreed to it with my fingers crossed. That, and I had little choice in the matter... Aunt Jenny can be extremely persuasive... and kind enough to pay for the whole thing to get done.

By the end of the ordeal, I did in fact have straight, healthy-looking hair. Despite having about three inches cut from the length, I left the salon with my hair at the same length as it was when I arrived there... an unexpected result from your usual haircut. As for how it looks.. here's the result:

Before----> After---->

Note that these pictures have the difference of a Japanese straightening, about three weeks, and a bit over ten pounds between them. What a wonder for the body, this phenomenon of walking everywhere and forgetting to eat as often. Anyway, the new hair was met with much approval from everyone that mattered... my roommate was astonished that it was so extremely straight, but liked it very much. My own thoughts on it are general bewilderment and occassional shock upon looking in a mirror. It's a good change, though... it helps in terms of starting up at school and introducing myself. The bigger, wavier hair tended to scare people off a bit... this will hopefully be a slightly more amicable look. Besides which, I can go mad with hair-washing. Why, I can wash my hair any time I want! (Insert maniacal laughter here.) Ah, the simple pleasures. Get 'em while they last.