“Bad hair days” are universal. We’ve ALL had them. We’ve all had the bad perms. We’ve all had bad haircuts before too. Sometimes, both at the same time. But MY biggest nemisis, in addition to the Battle of the Gray, is humidity. Humidity is not my friend. It takes all my hard work straightening and shining my dull, lifeless hair, and twists it into a frizzed up hot mess. And there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

I’ve always been a natural blonde. It was snow white when I was little. **gosh, I was a little cutie pie**

Then it was still a slightly darker-than-white-blonde as I got into my thirties.

But then came my mid-fourties and BAM! **insert slew of four-letter words** I was forced to get my hair “highlighted”. I also suffered from “sticker shock”! What? $120?? For real? Every two months? Yeah, I don’t think so. It was time to break out the bottle for $9.99 to wash the gray (nasty four-letter word) away. Easy enough solution. I can handle that. The hardest part, after all the years of proudly proclaiming that I was a REAL blonde, was acknowledging that I wasn’t any longer. Yes, my name is Donna and I am a fake blonde. I hope I don’t have 11 more steps to this. It’s hard enough accepting the gray.

All my talk about hair was sparked by Oprah. She just did a show this past week on Good Hair, the comedy/documentary by Chris Rock, as did The View yesterday, and I found it extremely interesting. It really hit home with me just HOW universal worrying with your hair really is. And what surprised me more than anything was the lengths, time and expense that black women go through in dealing with their hair. I had NO IDEA! That’s all I can say. I had absolutely NO IDEA! I also had NO IDEA that men do NOT under any circumstance put their hands in a black woman’s hair. I think I was the last person on the planet to learn that by the reaction of everyone I’ve talked to.

When I watched Chris Rock promote his movie, my question first and foremost was WHY? Why do they do this? It’s so much time! (I can’t sit still that long) And it’s so much money! Seriously. Chris Rock suggested that it was possibly to emulate white people’s hair (the “good hair”), but after talking to G (a black lady that I work with) and after hearing Whoopi’s viewpoint (they were both in agreement), it’s not to emulate white people hair at all. They just want to have hair that they can MANAGE. That’s when it hit me. Although the struggles are a bit different, we ALL have the same goal; Manageable Hair.

This is a trailer for the movie and it alone is really interesting AND funny. I intend to see this movie, if for no other reason, to further understand what all black women have to go through. I’m overwhelmed with empathy for the women having to endure the agony and admiration for the patience it takes to sit through this week in and week out. As a woman, my heart goes out.

It’s just that now, I feel triflin’ fussing about my gray, humidity induced frizz.

Maybe I should just count my blessings that a little gray and some frizzy mess is all I have to deal with, huh? **that’s the bottled blonde, by the way** It’s the only thing I have the patience for.