Taking Out The Braids

Taking our my braids.  What an experience.  I thought I’d share it in all its glory (or is it gory?) with you.  Background music is Jammin’ by Bob Marley.

FACT: Braiding hair takes less time than unbraiding it.  Latoya took a mere one and a half hours.  It took my husband and I three and a half hours to undo it.  (It’s a sign of true love when a husband spends his Saturday morning unbraiding his wife’s hair.  Thank you, Craig.)

FACT:  With arms tired of being held up for such a difficult task, watching The Pirates of the Caribbean relieved the tediousness of the activity.  Appropriate choice of movie, don’t you think?  (While getting my hair braided in Jamaica, that tediousness was broken up as I watched two arguing men almost get into a knife fight.  No boredom there!)

FACT:  Anybody interested in a slew of red and white bead from Jamaica, let me know.  I have a whole pile that I’ll mail them to you.   Free of charge.  (But then you could just go to your local craft store and get the very same beads there.  They just wouldn’t have the notoriety of being from Jamaica.  China, yes.  Jamaica, no.)

FACT:  My scalp sighed with relief when the tension from the braids was finally gone.

FACT:   According to a local beautician, 100 hairs a day will normally fall out of a person’s scalp.  Since I had my braids in for 11 days and I was unable to brush it during that time, the pile of hair that came out during the combing consisted of approximately 1,100 hairs.  That’s a big pile.  However, my hair did not come out in clumps.  No bald spots on my scalp.  Thank goodness.  (As the video clip can testify, my hair doesn’t look unusually thin either.)

FACT:  Those 1,100 hairs will grow back and all will be normal once more (what ever normal is . . .).  I just hope the sunburn on my back will recover just as nicely . . .

FACT:  It’s amazing how Vaseline (that was used in the braiding of my hair) helped me to create an ‘out standing’ hairdo (as evidenced in the video clip).  I wonder what folks on the bus or at work would say if I came to work with my hair spiked up.  Now THAT just might jeopardize my job . . .

FACT:  In the next few days, the white flakes people will see in my hair are NOT dandruff.  It’s just my scalp pealing from the sunburn.  (Now that there isn’t any tension due to the braids, the sunburned skin can finally slough off.)

FACT:  The red-and-white zigzag pattern on my scalp isn’t very noticeable– the red because of the sunburn between the braids and the white because parts of my scalp under the braids have not seen the light of day since my hair grew in when I was a toddler.

FACT:  One of my profile pictures reminded me of an Egyptian sphinx – thanks to my big honking German-sized nose and the way my hair stuck out in back.  I’m now thinking of getting a permanent . . .

FACT:  It took three times of lathering up with shampoo and rinsing out the soap to get all of the Vaseline out of my hair.

FACT: More hair came out while I washed it in the shower.  Part way through my shower, I realized I was standing in water almost up to my knees – and the drain plug was not stopped!  After removing the wad of hair covering the drain (twice!) the water obediently drained out of the tub.

FACT:  As I get ready for work in the mornings, I will miss the ease of the braided hairstyle.  With the braids in, I just floofed my bangs and was finished.  I’m thinking of getting a wash-n-go style.  I’m getting lazy in my old age.

FACT:  I love sleeping bead-free.  How soft and comfortable my head lays on my pillow.

FACT:  I love the feel of a light spring breeze through my hair instead of having the wind whiplash me with the beads.

FACT:  My hairdo won’t scare little children in the grocery store any more – at least not any more than it previously did.

FACT:  After learning that I was posting this movie on my web page, my husband entered the CIA witness protection plan.  He’s not sure that he wants to be connected to me and is counting the days until people will forget about this video clip.  (Isn’t he lucky to be married to me??)

QUESTION:  Would I ever get my hair braided like this again?

ANSWER:  Ya mon!