kim's perms and peanut m&m's #2

about two weeks ago, i went to the salon with a plan.  my daughter was getting a shampoo and blow dry and i was getting my weave removed, a shampoo and blow dry.  but then i got there.  everyone must have been spending their checks that friday night on getting perms and their hair looked "g" "double o" "d" there were three stylists in at the time, my daughter's stylist, debbie, who is also my former stylist and good friend.  she has a perm.  her twin sister, debra, who is natural and the mom of one of my former students, cynthia,  who also has a perm.   once i saw the ladies all leaving with their hair done i went back and forth and forth and back about a decision i thought i was solid on.  i had thought about this for some time and had spent the last week having a conversation with myself daily about the fact that i would no longer perm my hair.  but being in the same vicinity with the perm...the smell of it and looking at people get it in their heads, almost as if in slow motion...was hard.  i can only liken it to what an addict must feel like.  i have never done drugs but i know how uncomfortable a pack of peanut m&m's can make me, and if i hang out too long with a pack, we will get to know one another very well.

debbie stuck to her guns..."kim, don't do it!  don't get the perm, i think your hair will look so good natural!"  okay, i was solid again...i had to regain control.  cynthia interjected, "the natural hair thing is overrated!  it doesn't work for everyone."  just the push i needed to stay on the permed side.  i mean after all, my hair grows unbelievable fast...although i had a short cut last august, my own hair was past my shoulders.  oh and if i perm it...you already know, another inch maybe inch and a half.  okay...maybe i will perm it and it will still look like my weave, no one will know the difference.  so now i am on the fence about it and waiting for debra, the naturalista, to weigh in she always has good advice.  and she says...nothing.  so the friendly banter goes back and forth between debbie and cynthia and i call out, "who am i fooling?  perm me!"  everyone laughs because this conversation has been going on for at least 45 minutes and when i walked in the door i was so self-assured that i was going natural.

what i failed to mention is my former student zadia was in the salon...she is 21 and i had not seen her since she was in 3rd grade.  she has a short haircut and she is just a stunningly beautiful young lady, and her mom put a hurting on that cut!  (that would be a good hurting not like me getting my hair pressed with the straightening comb) as i went to the shampoo bowl to get my perm (which felt like the longest walk of my life) i remember zadia in 3rd grade, stunningly beautiful.  she wore ponytails that were fuzzy around the edges and she was just as cute as a button, a gorgeous little girl...and that had not changed.  during the stroll that normally takes 10 steps, it hit me again, your hair does not make you beautiful.

so, i sat in the back, me and my girl and i used my phone to take pictures of our bushes.  first hers and then mine and i showed it to zai and i told her i'm gonna keep my bush, just like yours.  i wish i had saved the pics to post.  i remember looking at how crazy i looked a few days after i took the pics and i erased them, but looking crazy is part of the process...you see, in the beginning perms looked crazy, had to.  there is no way we were once walking around with curls, coils, kinks and twists and then just straight...but we got used to it and conformed.  and i will get used to this, but i might have to find a natural salon because i have not loss my desire for the creamy crack...no matter how hard i fight the urge, just like peanut m&m's.