Thursday, August 27, 2009

Meme award for me!

The ever-wonderful Bangchik (My Little Vegetable Garden), my friend in Malaysia, passed the Meme Award along to me. To play along, I need to reveal 7 things about myself. Because I'm not feeling very profoundish today, I've decided to talk about my hair. Since I'm 35 years old, I will divide my years by 7 and talk about the changes that my hair has gone through in 5 year segments (yes, I am totally serious. The brain is really working today - just in rather odd ways).


  1. birth to 5 years old. I had a stereotypical little Asian girl hairstyle (I don't know why Chinese parents do this to their kids). Bangs, about shoulder-length hair. The texture was sort of medium (not too thick or fine), and straight. The color of my hair was a dark brown. I had no thoughts about my hair, but did like to put my younger sister's hair in pink plastic rollers, and at one point, I wanted to be a hair stylist.

  2. 5-10 years old. During this period, I started growing my hair (b/c my mom didn't cut it, not because I had any care about it), and being the late 70's early 80's, lots of hair accessories became the norm - we would buy simple barrettes and weave ribbon through them, let the ribbon hang down a few inches and maybe add some color coordinating beads. In the younger years, used yarn and barrettes, later on, the Scrunci was invented. Soon thereafter, the banana clip was invented. Fun stuff.

  3. 10-15 years old. The largest amount of change probably happened during this time. I began living at the pool each summer from about 8-12 years old, and my hair color was still overall a dark brown, but also became a little brassy. I also had some lighter - almost blondish colored highlights (from the sun). Around 10 years of age, my hair texture changed dramatically and became extremely full and wavy. Towards the mid 80's, I dreaded haircuts because the hairdressers would inevitably tell me how much they loved "playing" with my hair and blow dry it waaaay up and out, with big wings on the sides and bangs that curled up. All eyes were on me as I left the joints, and I was not happy. It was Miss America hair and I hated it. Big, huge, fluffy, wavy. The exact opposite of the loose, straight, flat, hairstyles I liked. Truth be told, it was probably the typical Caucasian hair that I desired - light, wispy, soft-looking, etc. There are probably a whole host of ethnic-identity issues here, but as I said, I'm not feeling profoundish today - just wanna talk about my hair. One hairdresser told me I'd be glad to have thick, full hair one day.

  4. 15-20 years old. This was a time of experimentation. When I was 15, I kept only the hair on the very top of my head, but shaved the rest of my head to the scalp (picture this with my combat boots, fishnet stockings, blackberry lipstick, and black liquid eyeliner). Most of the time, I wore the top part of my hair in a braid or ponytail. I also experimented with color and tried: auburn (loved it), magenta (not me), blond streaks (including Sun-In and Frost and Tip), but most of the time, it was dyed blue-black. I liked the style of the shaved head, but also liked that with most of my head shaved, I finally got rid of the dense, heavy head of hair that I cannot stand and have fought for years.
  5. 20-25 years old. During this time, I'm raising my first child and ponytailing most of the time. I like the ponytail b/c I don't like hair in my face, and obviously, it's easy. I feel alert with my hair out of my face. It's not necessarily attractive, but this is also not necessarily my focus.
  6. 25-30 years old. More change, though not so wild. I am a busy working mom, and have starting working on my second Master's degree part time in the evenings. I spend a lot of money on a haircut, and as a result, try not to cut too often. At this point, I grow it long, long, long, then cut it chin length. Then long, long, long, then chin length. Once, I donated to Locks of Love (though they probably threw it out when they got it because my hair is still very big, frizzy, wavy, unruly, scraggly, etc.). One year, I discovered a straightening iron, which gives my hair a very sleek look, but since I have so much of it, it takes about an hour to do - an hour more than I have to invest in my hair. Ironically, it was taking me an hour to get my hair to look like the hair that most Asian people have naturally.

  7. 30-35 years old. I have my second child at this time, and though I'm still busy, have taken slightly more interest in my appearance. I think that developmentally, this is because I am starting to feel the effects of age. I start reflecting on the self-esteem (I'm talking purely about superficial aspects) that I lacked as a teen and wondered why I thought I looked fat in my 20's when I actually looked pretty good; about why I ponytailed it when I could have worn it down and attractively. In the past year, I have also noticed a dramatic amount of hair actually falling out. I think I've probably lost about 30% of the fullness during these 5 years. In addition, I choose to dye my hair regularly to cover the grays. So now, I'm realizing I want to take more pride in my appearance, cause giiiirrrrlll, it's fadin' fast. Around age 30, I also found an amazing hair stylist (who has since moved) who showed me how to actually work with my own hair texture instead of fighting it. So instead of pulling stunts like carefully sleeping on my hair a certain way so it will dry flat, or spending an hour with a straight iron, or shaving my head, I can use a simple product on my wet hair and let it air dry. One hour later, ka-bam! A great head of hair that is loose and wavy and sort of beach-tousled looking. The greatest thing about it is that I finally accept my hair for what it is, and have actually even come to love my hair.

While I think ANYONE who has read this post deserves an award, I am passing the Meme Award on to the following blogs - just some out of many blogs that I really enjoy!


Best in Bloom Today- Cause Lynn is totally awesome! Nuff said.


The Little Things - Julie, all-around cool person striving to do the best she can for her kids and live in an authentic way.


Gardening With Soule - I love Teresa's appreciation for and wonder of the world around her.


Arabella's Garden - I really relate to L'il Ned's sense of fun and her down to earth self.


Joel the Urban Gardener - Who makes any urban gardener or Marylander proud.


Digging RI - For informative and sensitive posts typed from my second favorite state in the US.


Bay Area Tendrils Garden Travel- who makes me yearn to see the world.


And because I'm not sure Bay Area Tendrils will post non-travel related things, I'm allowing myself to add an 8th:


A Faerie's Garden - a really amazing balcony gardener and cupcake baker!


Here are the guidelines:


1. Link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Reveal the 7 things about yourself
3. Tag 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and link to them
4. Let each blogger know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Let the tagger know when your post is up.

7 comments:

  1. From one Asian chick to another...I TOTALLY get the hair obsession thing...and I went 'almost' blonde, too! Please dig up a picture of the shaved head and combat look...lol!! Wendy, you are too funny! Thanks for passing this meme to moi...I'll post in a few days as it's 'move-in' time for my college bound daughter...boo hoo hoo!

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  2. My hair has always been spiky, never longer than 2 cm ... haha.., but Kakdah has gone through the stages you mentioned. ~bangchik

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  3. Thanks many times over for the award. What a nice surprise! Rock on Marylanders.

    As far as the hair poetry goes, well I'm jealous. At least a woman buying hair dye is a fairly normal activity and however "thin" your hair gets, most of it will probably still be there in 10 years. I should be so lucky! -cheers, joel

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  4. That's very funny, Wendy. I love this post. Regarding my hair 'adventure', I have tried the Farah Faucett, china doll, coconut shell head, afro, mushroom, hala-hala look if you know what I mean.

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  5. Hair poetry? Now I'm REALLY embarassed!

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  6. Thanks so much for the award and lovely intro Wendy =) Sorry I have been late to reply, I've been preoccupied with real life atm. I'll definately keep the meme going and do my best with it. Thanks again! Dot

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  7. I've posted! Just to let you know =)

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