| My Hair History - A 43 Year Odyssey |
| Noreen (Intro by Karen Marie Shelton) |
| Revised Date - 10/05/2007 - Original
Publication Date: 4/13/1999 |
Introduction
The very first time that I surfed over to The Long Hair Site in early 1997 I found
Noreen's photo. I was awestruck. I could not believe how thick, shiny, healthy and
beautiful her hair was. Noreen became my long hair heroine. I printed a copy of her photo
and studied her hair for a very long time. When I saw Noreen's hair I became more
determined than ever to grow my hair as long as possible.
When I saw Noreen's hair I had no idea that underneath all that gorgeous hair was one
of the most gentle and caring people that I would meet on the net. From time to time I
would see her posts on one of the hair boards and I always appreciated her thoughtful
comments, tips and hair information. I noticed that Noreen always made time to help
someone who was having problems. I loved the way Noreen would always take the time to
answer questions directed to her or add any information that she thought could help.
Noreen and I became acquainted through email and I discovered that my image of her as a
really sweet lady, was right on target. She has been really wonderful about sharing her
knowledge on Hair Talk. I love reading her posts because I learn so much. Her experiences
with Aveda's Beautifying Oil has helped a lot of people.
Since I feel a bond with Noreen, I was so excited when she sent us her great article
about growing her hair along with her hair photos. Looking at Noreen's current hair photo
again gave me renewed vigor towards taking care of my hair. Thank you Noreen for once
again sharing a part of you with all of us.
Article
Where should I begin? My husband would say to begin at the beginning. So here goes.
This may get very long, but hey, I have 43 years to cover here.
I wasn’t born with great hair. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t born with much
hair at all, and what little hair I did have was so blonde that you could see through it.
So I guess having any hair at all for me is great. It did take a few years for my hair to
fill in and grow. My hair started out very fine in texture and it still is today. My hair
color has gotten to be a darker shade of blonde as I have gotten older. My Dad was blonde,
so they tell me (he was bald the whole time I knew him) but my Mom had beautiful dark hair
with red highlights. Maybe I started lout like him but am getting more like her. I am
starting to get some gray hairs, but they pretty much blend in with the other hairs and
you can only see them if I am standing in the right (or wrong) light.
I had short hair most of my young life. My mother was a working woman (not very common
in the 50’s and early 60’s) so she was an advocate of short hair and home perms.
She just didn’t have the time to take care of long tangled hair. So my hair became
wash and wear along with my clothes. These perms always took better on one side than the
other. I used to think that this was the fault of the perms, but my hair still has a
tendency to take curl better on one side. It seemed to be very short and curly, or
straight as a pin to my ears with one big curl around my head that resembled a tube. My
hair was kept this way until I was about 9 years old, when my much older sister decided
that it was time for me to learn that I was a girl and took the time to teach me how to
take care of my hair.
From the time I was 9 until I was 16 I kept my hair at all different lengths. I went
through all the usual phases as that of most teenage girls, of that time. I tried the
Twiggy (does anyone remember her?) cut, and pin curls on the back of my head with straight
bangs parted down the middle. I used to tape my bangs to my face to keep them perfectly
straight. Taking the tape off in the morning while leaving the skin on my face and the
hair on my head was always a challenge. I even ironed my hair to keep out the wave. You
could always tell when I did that. First came the smell of burning hair, then came the
sound of my mothers exasperated voice asking what was stuck on the iron. Anything that was
a trend at the time, I did. Though I would let it grow out for a while I would inevitably
get it cut again. The longest my hair seemed to get was about shoulder length. I gave no
thought as to what products I should use or what might be bad for my hair. My hair was
just an accessory and unfortunately that’s how I treated it. But any damage that I
did, was cut off in the many haircuts I got.
Then about two months before my 17th birthday, I got my hair cut for the
very last time. It was cut into a short shag style, very short on top with many layers and
one longer layer in the back (just long enough to cover my neck). I did this because I was
looking for something that would be easy to care for. You see I was about to become a
mother, and everyone kept telling me how difficult it was going to be to find time to take
care of my hair. Being so young and inexperienced, I believed them. It didn’t take me
long to discover that it actually took more time to style it and how expensive it was to
keep going back for more trims just to keep it looking good. So within just a few months I
started to grow it again.
I went through all of the awkward stages. Getting all of my layers to get to the same
length took some time. My hair is naturally wavy and the waves never went the way I wanted
them to. I could never seem to figure out a way to keep my bangs from falling into my face
during this time. It was very frustrating, and I would be lying if I said the idea of
cutting it all off never entered my mind. But I had a great guy that wanted me to grow out
my hair and he was willing to help me in any way that he could.
He was so patient. When I would get frustrated in not being able to find a way to style
it, he would come up with something and do it for me. He became quite good at doing
braids, and we still enjoy trying out new things. When my hair started getting longer and
I was dealing with tangles, he would sit behind me and gently work them out. He was always
looking for things that would help me. He once came home with an electronic gadget used to
remove tangles. It was called The Purr. It worked really great. It had these two wide
combs that would move back and forth in opposite directions when turned on. It removed the
tangles from my hair after shampooing and never seemed to break or pull any of my hair
out. I used it for years and was really saddened when it finally stopped working. I
couldn’t find another one and have never seen one since.
As my hair continued to get longer the next problem I encountered was to find a good
stylist that would only trim the amount I asked for. I got very lucky. Two of our female
friends went into the hair business. One was a stylist and the other became a barber. I
went to the stylist the most. She would take out a ruler and measure exactly what I asked
for, make a cut and show me what she had cut. She would do this periodically throughout
the trim. She never took off more than I asked for. I would go the barber friend once in a
while. Mostly when my husband and son would go in for a cut. She, also, was very careful
to take off only what I asked, and my husband would stand behind her and watch to make
sure. I am amazed that she never seemed to get nervous with him doing that but she never
seemed to mind.
I once went to a different stylist. I wanted to get an angle cut in the front, so I
made an appointment with a new stylist at a local mall. I had heard some great things
about her and decided to give her a try. When I walked in the first thing they did was
analyze my hair. They plucked a few hairs from different parts of my head and put them in
this little contraption. It pulled on the hair until it broke. According to them, the
amount of pressure needed to break the hair determined the condition of the hair. From
this I was told that my hair was in pretty good condition, but that I needed to buy some
Redkin products to improve it. So I bought what they recommended and went to the shampoo
section to have my hair shampooed for the cut. The poor shampoo girl. I tried to warn her
to be gentle during the shampoo or that the tangles would be hard to remove, but I she
didn’t listen. Anyway, after about five minutes of trying to remove the tangles she
was very frustrated and I had to insist that she let me do it myself. Finally, it was time
to see the stylist. I told her what I wanted, and she refused to do the cut! She told me
that I would be unhappy with it, and that I had the perfect hair to keep growing. She
added that she hoped that I would consider doing just that. So I walked out of the salon
disappointed but with a few new products to try out. I wish I had listened to her, but
instead I went to my stylist friend. She reluctantly did the cut and it took me only a few
weeks to wish she hadn’t. I now had different lengths to grow out again. Whenever I
think about cutting in bangs, I just remember that episode and the desire goes away. As
for the Redkin products, they were OK but not worth the money to me. They didn’t make
my hair feel any different than any of the store brands I was using.
It was at about mid-back length that I finally realized that my hair seemed to be
considered special by other people. During this time, I started getting comments on my
hair from strangers. My husband was the keyboard player in a top 40 band that played at
some of the local clubs. I would often go with him to hear the band and to dance. This was
a hard time for me. I was kind of shy and having complete strangers come up and say
something nice to me was embarrassing. I didn’t know how to handle it. I would turn a
bright red, mutter a quiet thank you and turn my eyes away. After all, it was just hair
and not something that, to me, was anything special. However, it didn’t take too long
to get used to the comments. I think it helped me quite a lot in getting over my shyness
and since then I have met some pretty nice people because of my hair. I also hope that I
have learned to be much more graceful in handling these comments.
When my hair was between my waist and hips (about 12 years after I started growing it)
we moved to Georgia. It was really exciting to be going to another place to live and to
experience a different kind of culture from where I grew up. However, this also meant that
I had to find a new stylist. I was very worried about this, so my husband decided that he
would learn how to trim my hair. This worried me also. You see I had grown up listening to
stories about my mother’s hair. She had beautiful long hair, at one time, but after
getting married and not having the money to go a salon she let my dad cut it for her. He
did the best he could, but he couldn’t seem to get her hair even, so he just kept
cutting until it was well above her shoulders. She said she cried for weeks. I didn’t
want this to happen to me, and I didn’t want my husband to feel badly if he had the
same problem. After much talking, and a promise from him to stop if he got in over his
head, I agreed. It came out great, and since then he has been the only person to come near
me with scissors. He does all of my trims and even does my split ends.
During my time in Georgia (11 years) my hair seemed to thrive. I don’t know if it
was the humidity or what, but my hair grew to my knees. My husband read an article about
George Michael of NY and wrote to him. He told him all about my hair and how we were
looking for some new ways to style my hair. Well George sent me two books. One was his
book on how to care for hair (which he autographed) and another on different styles for
long hair. We learned much from his book about the care of long hair and followed it
religiously. I switched to a boar bristle brush, I took the time to finger pick out any
tangles, I bought combs without sharp edges, we followed his instructions for trimming
split ends, in general I just started being nicer to my hair. Maybe this was the reason
for the good condition of my hair. At the very least it didn’t hurt. I have since
loaned out the book to a friend that was growing out her hair. She moved to Missouri and I
never saw her or the book again. I have been trying to lay my hands on another copy of
this "out of print" book, but have not had any luck. I even have Amazon.com
looking for me.
About six years ago, I changed the part in my hair from the middle to the side. I
wanted a different look without cutting my hair. This has caused some problems. My hair
went from being all one length to having some shorter sections on one side. Because of
this I had decided to keep my hair at my knees. I thought of it as a resting point for the
longer sections of my hair while my shorter sections caught up. I don’t know if this
really worked. The shorter sections haven’t really caught up though they are closer,
and the longer sections seem to be happy. I also think that my growth rate has slowed down
some. Maybe it is my age, or maybe my hair is just nearing the end of its growth cycle.
Only time will tell.
A little over two years ago I moved back to New England. Three events happened that
have changed how I care for and think about my hair. The first was that we got an internet
connection. Through this I got exposure to more people that either had long hair or had an
avid interest in long hair. My husband soon talked me into posting some pictures on The
Long Hair Site. The response I got was overwhelming. I was very shocked to say the least.
I had gotten many comments on my hair in the past, but nothing like this. Everyone was so
encouraging and appreciative.
The second thing that happened was my hair. At first there was no noticeable
difference. But before the first winter was over, my hair had become very dry. The
products that I had been using in Georgia (Pantene) were not working on my hair at all. I
started to panic. Was I going to have to cut my hair? There had to be something I could do
that wasn’t so drastic. So I turned to the internet. I found a longhair site that had
a BB and I posed my problem there. Again, the response was overwhelming. I heard from
people from all over the world. They related their own hair problems and made many
suggestions of things that worked for them.
This brings me to the third event. One of those who responded was Karen Shelton. She
seemed so genuinely concerned and was very helpful. She sent me an e-mail that was packed
full of great information and wonderful things to try. Then I started seeing her name in
more places. She showed up on the TLHS mailing list, and I found myself reading every one
of her posts over and over again. Then one day she said that the website that she had been
involved with was going through some changes and so I stopped in to see what it was all
about. I found a site that was informative and a message board where the people were very
helpful and caring. I have learned so much from Hair Talk
and the people that post there. Thank you to Cher, Dawn, Laura Jane, Clare, Robin, Tamara,
Valentine, Dave, and others too numerous to mention here. You all give so much of
yourselves.
One of the very best things that I learned of was the Aveda product line. I have been
using it for a year now, and my hair has never been in better shape. I use the Shampure
almost exclusively, only occasionally switching off with the Camomille shampoo. It seems
to help to switch off once in a while. I love the color conditioners and use the Madder
Root and Camomille. I like the highlights they give me and they make my hair feel very
soft and silky. So far the only product that I didn’t like from the Aveda line was
the Rosemary Mint conditioner. It made my hair stiff and sticky. I am now experimenting
with the Curessence and Confixor products and I like what I see. But the very best product
for me was the Beautifying Oil. What a difference it has made! My ends are no longer all
dried out, and I am no longer thinking of cutting my hair. As a matter of fact, I am now
trying to grow it out some more. Maybe someday I will be blessed with ankle length hair.
But no matter what happens, I know that I can go to Hair
Talk and get the encouragement I need and all the helpful advice I want.
Thank you to Karen and Jeff, who give us all a place to come together and share our
experiences. |