Friday Five:
I haven’t done one of these in a while! This one’s nice and easy though.

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?
It’s very straight. (My hair’s a quarter Asian, after all!) I’ve always worn it pretty long because I like to put it in braids and ponytails.

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?
It’s a long and sordid tale. My hair was long, blond, and staight down to my bum until I hit the 4th grade. That’s when I caved to fashion by chopping it off and getting a spiral perm. The perm looked horrible for a week, relaxed into exactly what I wanted for two weeks, and was gone within a month. My hair just doesn’t like to curl. Then there were a few bad years of middle school involving more poodle perms and bad chopped off mullets. Yeah, I did the poofy bangs too. My hair also changed into more of lightish-brownish-reddish blond during this time (courtesy of our town’s rusty water). By the time I got to high school I stopped fighting it and just let it grow out again. In college I experimented with dyeing my hair and spent most of those years as a blonde. I also finally grew out my bangs. After graduating I decided to go red on a whim. In London I went very red (almost purple). I liked it, but it was a lot of maintenance and it always faded so quickly. Arriving in Australia I decided I needed a fresh start, so I had several years of colour stripped from my hair and my natural brown returned. I also had bangs put it again. That got boring pretty quickly, which is why I’ve now got a mixture of red and blond streaks. I think this is the best compromise. Told you it was a long story. 🙂

3. How do your normally wear your hair?
For work I generally just wear it down, parted in the middle or on the side. I usually take an elastic so I can braid it or pull it up in the afternoon. At home I usually have it up in a messy ponytail.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?
I wouldn’t change the style or anything. I’d just make it so that it would magically always look like I’d just blow dried it. It looks so good when I get back from the salon but I can never achieve it on my own (mostly because I’m too cheap to buy good product and too lazy to spend half an hour drying it).

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?
I mentioned the mullet, right? Actually I think the most traumatic event was when I first cut it off and permed it in the 4th grade. I expected to see preppy spirals and instead I had a tight Afro helmet. I tried to pass it off like it was what I wanted, but I wanted to cry. I got home that night and my Dad just looked at me and said, “You ruined your hair.” I felt awful. Luckily a few shampoos loosened it up to what I wanted, so I was eventually able to venture forth in public. I never forgot that though.