Hair-o-graphy

all day today i've been seeing bald meN. some carry it well. some don't.

i just saw my dad the other day and boy was his hair one step away from leaving the buildinG. no, he's not bald. it's just really, really thinned out.

i have the misfortune of being born in a family with really thiN, limp hair. however, if there's one thing to be assured of, it's that the seniors never lost their hair. it just, well, thinned out. you know, where you see hair, but you also see some scalp.

i guess that is why over the yearS, i've been wandering the desert of differing hairstyles. today's 'do, tomorrow's mirage.

i have phalacrophobia: the fear of going bald. is that a bad thinG? 

so this entry is more of an ode to haiR. i was thinking if ever my hair goes the way of the dodo someday, at least, i'd have a scrapbook full of different looks i've tried over the years.

20-something years ago: starting at the tips

i was born with straight hair. then over the course of several yearS, in grade school, for some unknown reason, it suddenly turned curly. this fact, compounded with the fact that i inherited the thin hair strands so characteristic of my dad's side of the family, made my sense of identity non-existent. 

i hated my hair. in tagalog, manipis na nga, salot pa. LOL. i remember being in denial, trying everything i can to somehow straighten it out. at 12 i had this silly notion that if i sleep with a swim cap on (you know, those skintight rubber things?) i would wake up with straight hair. hay...so naive.

but i tried to compensate by other meanS. i must have tried every imaginable hair product known to man. gels, mousse, spritzers, shine vitamins, wax, hair clay... name the brand, i've tried it.

(aka PDV - public display of vanity)

5 years ago: who am i?

fast forward several years later to when i'm already workinG. i did not really know what to do with it. i decided to just let it be.

until i met my Puerto Rican suitor (he was one of the bosses from the States). he had really thick, kinky hair. and he grew it out! he made the suggestion to have me grow mine out too. 

silly, impressionable me decided to do sO. so from this:

to thiS...

4 years ago: awkward phase

yes, it's one gasp short of 'que horroR!'. haha.




what was i thinkinG? but still i kept growing it. fueled by the constant prodding of mr. puerto rico, i hang on to it. (due to the extremely disturbing nature of the horrendous hair here, i decided to black it out as much as i can.)



3 years ago: hey mon!
so i had to experimenT. that or die from shame. i tried doing cornrows 3 years ago. i felt so...different. finally. something that distinguished me from the flock. all thanks to the artistic and patient hands of my lovely sister.

take note: i wore it for 2 days, tops. that's my limit. i may like the look, but i'm not one to pass on hygienE.

on some days, i just tie it bacK.



2 years ago: age of science..



hair science that iS. ignorant that i am to anything done in such place called a "salon", i found out that you never have to carry the "curse" forever. haha. after a long dry (pun intended) spell, my hair finally was something to look at.

long...







longer...








longest.








1 year ago: cut it...




there used to be a time when i consider a 50-pesos haircut exorbitanT. nowadays, 10x that is considered "normal". so, for the heck of it, i tried doing something different.








from something experimentaL...










..to just plain brushed in fronT.

currently, i'm sticking with this look:

---

if so ever my hair goes away someday...will i be able to grin and bear iT? i want to be pessimistic about it, that way if ever it doesn't go away then i'll be pleasantly surprised. if it does, then at least i got ready. sigh.

maybe there will be an unforeseen factoR. who knows? science could be my mane's saviour yet again.

no matter what, i'm taking it one day at a time. i guess i'll just wait and see.

--

my hair and i, we had good times. :)