Straighten Up

My mother was just a year younger than her sister. They were good friends, but my mother always felt as if she had taken second place. Her sister was smarter, her sister was prettier and her sister had curly hair. When I was a kid, she said this often enough that I came to accept it as fact.

I was an adult before I looked at some photos of them together and realized that my mother could have been a model. She had a gorgeous figure, a beautiful face and straight, glossy hair. My aunt was well-groomed, but narrowly spaced eyes, slightly bucked teeth and frizzy curls made the possibility of a modeling career quite remote.

I guess the grass is always greener on the on the other side. I’ve often wondered if my aunt longed for straight hair. I don’t know, but I have several friends, who regularly use chemical hair straightening processes. Everyone seems delighted with the results. 

Remembering high school girlfriends, who used a flat iron once or twice a day to straighten hair, I’d say this sounds a lot easier. I never had to do that, because I inherited my mother’s hair, if not her model-like looks. Nowadays, I’m just happy to have some hair left on my head!