Tag Archives: commentary

Clothing Prices: The Fashion Goldilocks Zone (Infographic)

clothingprices

Admittedly, I’m not much of a fashion maven, but I’ve done enough shopping and worn enough clothes in my life…enough to create the above infographic based on my personal observation of fashion pricing. There are pros and cons to buying fashion of all price ranges, but I have personally found that you CAN achieve the best of both worlds by carefully choosing well-made, mid-priced clothing. They land right in the “Fashion Goldilocks Zone” (not too cheap, not too costly; not too trendy nor too basic, etc), described in the graphic above.

Sure, mid-priced clothes are not designer clothes, but they’re also not likely to fall to pieces when you wash them a few times, either (as I have unfortunately experienced). If you’re willing to look for slightly higher-quality clothing that is put together well, especially for clothes you’ll be washing and wearing a lot, you’ll actually SAVE money in the long run because you won’t have to replace your whole wardrobe every year. (You don’t have to buy the most expensive clothes to have the best quality, either, because I’ve also unfortunately found that sometimes the high-priced pieces wear out just as quick as the cheap stuff.)

More help on picking quality clothing for less money:

Six Secrets to Spotting High-Quality Clothes
Accessible Chic: 6 Places to Shop Quality Clothes Online
How to Buy Nice Clothes On the Cheap
Is Buying Expensive Clothing Worth It?
How to Spot Quality Clothing

My Sense of Humor, Visualized (Infographic)

This chart is about as accurate as I could muster! I’ve been told many things about my sense of humor (i.e., that it doesn’t exist, or that I don’t laugh at things that are “clearly funny”), but as you’ll see, the “funny” side is just as filled out as the “non-funny” side! Check out the things that will make me wrinkle my brow with disgust, as well as the things that will have me making uncontrollable squeaky laughs of belly destruction. 😀

visualsenseofhumor_infograp

(And yes, I am well aware that the non-funny side includes very popular comedy styles/shows, but hey, everyone’s got an opinion :D)

Let’s Not Shame Depressed/Anxious People

Recently, I read an informative article on Forbes.com called “Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid.” I did like the points it made about breaking out of fear and learning how to be patient…but I have to admit, part of the article irked me, too. According to this article, I am mentally weak in at least 10 different ways, and have been since childhood. Coincidentally, I have also suffered multiple lapses of depression and anxiety attacks since at least the age of 8.

Striving toward the goals on this list of mental strengths IS a task worth doing; however, this article casts some forms of “mental weakness” as a completely controllable, chosen way of life. I know better.

What Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, According to This Article

  1. Waste time feeling sorry for themselves
  2. Give away their power
  3. Shy away from change
  4. Waste energy on things they can’t control
  5. Worry about pleasing others
  6. Fear taking calculated risks
  7. Dwell on the past
  8. Make the same mistakes over and over
  9. Resent other people’s success
  10. Give up after failure
  11. Fear alone time
  12. Feel the world owes them anything
  13. Expect immediate results

My Big Problems with This List

Most of these points are valid, and can be adopted by changing your perspective and outlook to match; that’s perfectly fine. Unfortunately, there are a few points on this list that people may not be enduring by choice; I am speaking primarily of depression and anxiety. This article, I feel, goes a little too close to shaming/blaming people who have depressed or anxious thought patterns, such as the following:

  1. “Mentally strong people don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.” Unfortunately, when you’re depressed, your life is one big cesspool of “sorry.” Life feels pointless; you find yourself pondering the question “Why am I even here? Why do I exist? Everyone would be better off if I just died so I wasn’t taking up space.” And when depression has argued you into a logical corner like this, sometimes you have to spend half an hour mentally talking yourself into taking a shower, let alone getting out of the house and being “useful.” It’s very difficult NOT to feel sorry for yourself when you see other people being normal and having a good life, and you feel like your ability to live is broken.
  2. “Mentally strong people don’t give away their power.” When you’re depressed or anxious, you don’t HAVE any power anymore–that’s the whole problem. These mental conditions encroach on you like a garbage compactor, slowly compressing your thoughts until they tangle and crunch in on themselves. Other people’s opinions simply pile in on top of these already-twisted thoughts, adding more noise and more confusion to the mess of your life. And God help you if others are judging you harshly for going through this mess, as if you CHOSE this punishing way of life, as if you “could change if you really wanted to.” How INSULTING, and utterly unhelpful–comments like that just make the thought compactor move faster, and you’re even more powerless to change it.
  3. “Mentally strong people don’t waste energy on things they can’t control.” Yeah, except anxiety takes that choice away from you, completely. It doesn’t matter if what you’re anxious about is in your control or not–your brain is going to lock on to it and hang on like a hermit crab. The song of worry plays on and on, endlessly, drowning out most other thoughts, diminishing your appetite, and keeping sleep just barely at bay; it’s like trying to walk against a strong wind.
  4. “Mentally strong people don’t dwell on the past.” Fine and dandy, except when it’s 4 am and your brain has decided to play you a never-ending newsreel of all the horrible things you’ve done or thought about in your life. Depression brings up guilt, which in turn regurgitates your past–except that these memories always cast you as the villain, the outcast, the one who should be hated or destroyed for all the failures and mistakes, all the hurt you’ve caused. Mentally “strong” folks, how would you deal with this, when your own brain turns against you? When you’re depressed, you are mentally drowning in this, every moment, and you can’t just “think positive” or “quit thinking about the past” to fix it.
  5. “Mentally strong people don’t give up after failure.” Failure causes a certain degree of anxiety–that’s a given for just about anyone. In normal folks, that anxiety can propel them to greater achievement later. But in folks like me, who already hate and fear failure as if it means certain death, failure binds up our brains in sticky spiderwebs of anxiety, and depression plays the role of the approaching spider. A failure is one more way you’re weak; it’s one more thing to be guilty about, and depression feeds on guilt as spiders feed on bugs, sapping the will to try again–why bother, when you’re just going to fail again and prove what a waste of space you are?
  6. “Mentally strong people don’t fear alone time.” Alone time? Oh, you mean “Incessant Internal Guilt-Trip” time. Or maybe you meant “Wonder-What-Everyone-Else-Is-Doing-Without-Me” time. Perhaps even “Reasons-I-Should-Kill-Myself” time. My alone time, historically speaking, has been full of this kind of overwhelming negativity, and I’m not the only one to experience it this way–depression wraps your brain in this kind of foggy thinking. Even when you are with others, you feel pretty alone mentally, and when you are alone in reality, the negative feelings double in size, because you don’t have other people helping to drown it all out. Every thought process takes a negative turn whether you want it to or not–it’s like they’re all on railroads headed toward the pit.

My Point: “Mental Strength” May Require Professional Help for Some Folks

If you find yourself able to turn your thoughts around by reading helpful/inspiring articles, then that’s awesome. But for people like me who suffer clinical depression and/or anxiety, some of these points may just be too tough to tackle on our own. I think the Forbes article ignores that, as if all people can just fix these skewed mental mindsets on their own. (I tried fixing my depression on my own, and I ended up worse off than before.)

Think of it this way: we would not ask a cancer patient to administer his or her own chemotherapy, nor we would expect a person to perform his or her own surgery in the hospital. Why, then, does society believe that depressed or anxious people can somehow heal themselves–or that they chose to be sick in the first place? Mental strength is a wonderful goal, but for some, it may require more than just a self-help book to achieve. It may require various forms of therapy, friend/family support, medications, etc. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Glasses Off: 4 Uplifting and Helpful Sites

With all the negativity and drama that spreads around the Internet all the time, I find myself wanting happier (or at least more positive) things to read and learn from. Thankfully, there are other people who think like me and have made the following sites:

Upworthy
Videos and short blurbs about things that are either happy or important to learn.

DailyGood
Inspiring news…we can all use a dose of good news and happy things to read!

BigThink
These articles may not ALWAYS be happy, but they will generally be very helpful. 🙂

LifeHacker
Who knew that lifehacks could encompass bettering ourselves?

Glasses Off: 4 Thought-Provoking Sites

Sometimes I get awfully tired of seeing the same news and “shocking” stuff regurgitated all over the Internet. Sometimes, I just want something new and nourishing, something to actively learn rather than something just to read and forget. For those times, I look to the following four sites:

Comics That Say Something
Subtle wisdom in visual form…really awesome!

Contemplate.us
Little text wisdom blurbs you can browse through.

LongReads
Longer articles/essays on various subjects–bet you can guess why I like this one, LOL

PBS.org
All kinds of shows and topics, from scientific discoveries to art history, with a common thread of making you think.

Hoarder Confessions, part 1: Humanizing the Cluttered Life

Hoarders–usually characterized as “packrats” by modern media–seem to be quite mythical, eccentric characters. We even have TV shows about them now (both fictional and non-fictional), which paint such people as willful clutter-gatherers, antisocial, and even crazy.

hoarding_example I, however, have a different perspective on this description of “hoarder”–because by most modern standards, I am a hoarder, and several other members of my family have been as well. (The pictured area is the hallway outside my bedroom door, just as an example.) I’ve been battling against my natural hoarding tendencies for a couple of years now, most notably seen through my Slaying the Clutter Dragon article series, but as you can see from this picture, I have a LONG way to go. What you see here is the unofficial “laundry station” in the house, a tiny bit of order balanced precariously on decades of junk.

What Exactly IS Hoarding?

According to the Wikipedia article on compulsive hoarding, it amounts to gathering and keeping objects long after their usefulness has passed, and being unable to let items go. In severe cases, it can actually keep a person from using much space in their house, turning the “livable” rooms into literal obstacle courses (I should know, my room is like this!). Hoarding is considered either a mental disorder all its own, or part of another mental disorder (usually it’s paired with OCD). (Additional information can be found on Psychiatry.org’s Hoarding Disorder page.)

A “Clutter Continuum,” Constantly Changing

Hoarding is not, however, made up of just a couple of easily-recognizable behaviors. Rather, it can appear in mild, moderate, and severe forms, all along a continuum of clutter. My maternal grandmother was a severe hoarder; for example, she had a stack of TV Guide magazines so large that it had formed a side table of sorts in her TV room. The entire second floor of her home was unusable, and several of the first-floor rooms were piled so full of boxes that the doors could not even be opened. And let’s not talk about the refrigerator. By contrast, I would call myself a mild to moderate hoarder; I don’t hoard old newspapers and REALLY obvious trash, but I have a hard time letting go of broken/messed-up items, old toys from childhood, etc.

Hoarding tendencies can also develop and change over one’s lifetime as life events happen; as a child, I hoarded just about everything that was “mine” because it was simply mine and I liked knowing that I could claim these items for myself. As I grew up, I realized that my cluttered room was not only keeping me from using about 80% of my bedroom space, but kept me from inviting friends and family over. Thus, I got a big attack of “Sick-Of-It-Itis” and started a slow purge of items that continues to this day. By contrast, my mom’s previously uncluttered and almost painfully-tidy rooms have become more cluttered as her health has declined; de-cluttering has become an almost insurmountable task.

The Mindsets Behind Hoarding

Having observed the hoarding tendencies both in myself and in my family members, I believe I can describe the thought processes that cause and perpetuate hoarding:

“I’ll Need It Later/Someone Else Will Need It”

This is the constant belief that the item will be useful for someone at some point in time–just not right now, or not for me personally. I fall victim to this all the time, especially if the item was REALLY useful to me in the past, or if it’s messed up and “just needs a little fixing” to be ready for someone else to use. It makes my skin crawl to think I’m throwing out a perfectly good item! (See next point for more on this)

“I Paid Good Money for This”

This, above all, is where my hoarding comes from. I cannot STAND it when something I paid for is broken/no longer useful and everyone else says I should throw it away–I can’t STAND seeing money go in the trash. During the Great Purge of 2009, I actually got physically ill at the thought of having to throw away a really expensive blouse, even though it had some staining and a little rip in it. I was angry at myself for letting the blouse get messed up, and I was angry that the money I had spent on it was virtually wasted. (Thanks to some super-awesome stain remover and a few stitches, however, I was able to save the blouse and wear it again…LOL)

“I’m Keeping the Memories in This Item”

This, I think, is what Gran suffered from the most. By the time her hoarding had gotten severe, my granddad had already died and a lot of her friends had passed away, too. Keeping Granddaddy’s old papers, records, and books, as well as cards from her late friends and old newspaper articles featuring them, may have made her feel more secure, as if she hadn’t lost all these people in her life. Plus, if she had started to deal with all the boxes in Granddaddy’s old study (one of the rooms that you couldn’t even walk into), she would have had to deal with the onslaught of grief at realizing he was really gone. I don’t know for a fact that this is what caused ALL her hoarding, but it’s a really good guess based on what I observed.

“If I Don’t Hang Onto It/Remember How Important It Is, Who Will?”

This question arises from a sense of preserving history as well as memories, as if the hoarder is somehow a caretaker and curator of their own personal museum. Mom and I both do this a lot–she and I have both kept a lot of old stuff from my childhood. In a way, the clutter becomes a memory book, except that you have to walk around it instead of being able to leaf through it…and there’s an underlying fear that if you get rid of the item, whatever it is, you’ll forget why it was important to you, and forget something vital to who you are today.

In short, hoarding (at least from my experience) comes from wanting to be prepared for everything, trying to keep memories (even when it seems no one else will), and preventing waste (either of money or items). These are all pretty valid concerns, but in our brains, it takes top priority. It seems it all boils down to preventing loss; it is our way, perhaps, of fighting Father Time and Death, and staving off grief. (I know I don’t deal with loss very well, at least, though I can’t speak for any other hoarders out there.)

Don’t Judge or Shame, PLEASE

If you don’t live as a hoarder or live in a house with one, chances are you have no idea why or how all this happens; the tendency to judge hoarders as “crazy” or “gross/weird” people is very strong, especially now that hoarding TV shows are such a media hit. But people really do live this way, and a lot of it is based on fear. Either we’re terrified to lose memories or be unprepared, or we’re terrified to let other people know how deeply we are mired in a mess of our own making. Other people’s judgments and shaming, including the TV shows which seem to just make a spectacle out of us, do not help in the LEAST.

If you know a hoarder who wants to get out of their cluttered mess, and you want to help them, then be supportive, be available to help, and be patient. Tangled in the clutter is a lot of emotions, possibly grief as well as fear and humiliation; be sensitive to that, even as you plod on, gaining ground inch by inch. Understand that not every hoarder wants to give up their lifestyle, but some of us feel more trapped than soothed by the clutter and would LOVE a helping hand. And finally, respect that we are human beings and don’t deserve to be treated like naughty children; after all, if a hoarder willingly shows you his or her house, you have just been deemed trustworthy enough to bear a secret, one that may be much more painful than you know.

Next Time: Help for Hoarders

In Part 2, I’ll discuss how we hoarders can start to overcome our fear and humiliation with a few simple-sounding tactics. You’d be surprised how much these little changes can really make a difference!

You’d Be Surprised How Psychiatrists Determine Who’s “Normal!”

A few months ago, on a whim, I checked out a book titled They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal, by Dr. Paula Caplan. The title sounded interesting, especially to a person like me who had made some forays into the study of psychology during undergrad and graduate studies. But I had no real idea of the epiphanies that I was about to read.

This book, published in 1996, covered how the APA (American Psychological Association) makes its handbook of mental disorders, called the DSM (short for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Caplan had worked with the mostly-male committees who made the DSM in the first place–her recountings were an insider’s perspective, and she told of the arbitrary, biased decision-making and filibustering of “unfavorable” ideas that formed this so-called “scientific” manual.

At first it was hard to believe that men of psychology could allow the process to be so political and biased. After all, they’re supposed to be held to the scientific method just like every other scientist, right? They’re supposed to form a hypothesis, test it repeatedly, and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt whether the hypothesis is true or not. But all throughout Caplan’s book, she documented experiences of exactly the opposite: mental “disorders” which were seemingly invented to marginalize the valid emotional experiences of women and minority groups.

For instance, the APA was going to outline a supposedly “new disorder” called “Self-Defeating Personality Disorder,” in which the sufferer actually invites someone else to abuse them and acts in overly submissive ways toward the other person. Um, excuse me, but when someone is being abused, the abuser is the one who chooses to actively hurt that person. And not only that, but when one is being abused, one tends to try to minimize and avoid abuse as much as possible–usually by acting submissively, trying to vanish as much as possible.

The only reason this disorder was even suggested in the first place was because all the committee members (mostly old white guys) deemed this behavior “pathological.” They could not fathom someone acting in this way, because they had never acted in that way themselves–thus, this was a “disorder.” Not really scientific reasoning at work here, even to an untrained eye like mine. And SDPD wasn’t the only “disorder” to make it into the DSM without proper testing. They Say You’re Crazy also details other cases of wrongheaded disorders being legitimized, much to the detriment of patients who were diagnosed and medicated for these ultimately nonexistent problems.

Does This Problem With the DSM Still Exist? YOU BET!

After I finished the book, I was disturbed about the huge problem Dr. Caplan had presented. “But this book was published back in ’96,” I thought. “Surely the field of psychology has matured past all this junk.” Still, I wanted to see whether Dr. Caplan had written any more books.

So, I Googled her name…and was astounded at the sheer amount of information–RECENT blog articles, petitions, Websites, and the like–which were still talking about this problem. And the most troubling part? It seemed that the APA was no closer to listening to Dr. Caplan and her allies than they were back in ’96, either.

For instance, this 2012 article by Dr. Caplan chronicles another case of harm done by misdiagnosing and overmedicating, in which a young, overworked mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, forcibly committed to a psych ward, and given psychiatric drugs. The woman lost friends and husband because of this misdiagnosis, ended up on permanent disability, and the drugs they gave her gave her an eye condition that could end up leaving her blind. And This WordPress.com blog archives quite a number of other informational (and eye-opening) posts about Dr. Caplan’s recent work on this issue, including a video series called “The Stories of Harm the APA Refused to Hear.”

Stories of individuals’ struggle with being misdiagnosed abound all around the Web. It’s not just average everyday people, either–military veterans have suffered with misdiagnoses too, often being given drugs that only exacerbate the problem or keep them drugged to avoid real emotional healing. Even some members of the APA have gone on record admitting that the DSM series has serious problems which must be addressed.

Yet the APA has apparently closed its ears and eyes to all of this. In a painfully honest article in May of this year, Dr. Caplan admits that even her stalwart resolve to keep talking about this problem has wavered in the face of such stony rejection and determined dismissal. But she continues to write about this in objective yet passionate tones, striving toward the goal of changing bad diagnoses and really using psychology to help people rather than just slapping on a label.

My Conclusion: This Needs Attention, Yesterday

I’m not a psychological or psychiatric expert, by far. But I have been exposed to some mental health services, especially in middle and high school, and I have experienced how a label, whether right or wrong, can have such a powerful effect on a person’s life. (I was 12 when I discovered that the “counselor” I’d been seeing in school actually worked for my county’s mental health services. I remember the hysterical question I flung at her: “So y’all all think I’m crazy?!” It was like my stories of being mercilessly teased and physically abused at school had meant nothing; I had been labeled as a “troubled child,” as if I myself were “the problem,” instead of the mean kids I had the misfortune of going to school with.)

Even just seeking therapy these days carries a social stigma, after all; imagine how a wrong mental diagnosis could wreck your career, marriage, social life, etc. How do you fight back against doctors who are telling you that you’re permanently screwed up and you’re always going to need drugs? How do you insist that you’re screwed up because of the things that have happened to you, not because of some inborn defect, when they are telling you exactly the reverse?

I for one applaud Dr. Caplan’s work, which draws attention to the need for more research and sheer SCIENCE to be applied to such a delicate problem as the human mind. We aren’t just talking about using the right medication at the right time–we’re talking about actually alleviating emotional pain rather than staving it off and avoiding it. (We in America tend to want, as Dr. Caplan says, “a quick fix and a pill for everything,” but our minds must be treated with more care.)

One last troubling thought: if the APA is more concerned with handing out drugs rather than actively treating mental illness as the serious, life-altering group of conditions that it is, then we as a society ought to be concerned that maybe their interests don’t lie in helping hurting people anymore. After all, if psychiatry has become a “science” of “diagnose somebody in 5 minutes and shove pills at them,” is it worth our money and time anymore?

Resources/Further Reading

Calls to Action/Petitions

Find They Say You’re Crazy Online

Online Articles About or By Dr. Caplan

Profiles and Archives of Dr. Caplan’s Online Work

Selected Bibliography for Dr. Caplan, from FeministVoices.com

  • Caplan, P. J. (1985). The myth of women’s masochism. New York, NY: New American Library.
  • Caplan, P. J. (1991). How do they decide who is normal? The bizarre, but true, tale of the DSM process. Canadian Psychology, 32, 162-170.
  • Caplan, P. J. (1992). Gender issues in the diagnosis of mental disorder. Women & Therapy, 12, 71-82.
  • Caplan, P.J. (1995). They say you’re crazy: How the world’s most powerful psychiatrists decide who’s normal. Jackson, MI: De Capo.
  • Caplan, P. J. (2000). Don’t blame mother: Mending the mother-daughter relationship. New York: Routledge.
  • Caplan, P. J. (2004). The debate about PMDD and Sarafem: Suggestions for therapists. Women & Therapy, 27, 55-67.
  • Caplan, P. J. & Caplan, J. (1998). Thinking critically about research on sex and gender, 2nd edition. New York: Addison-Wesley Longman.
  • Caplan, P. J. & Cosgrove, L. (Eds.).(2004). Bias in psychiatric diagnosis. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.

Smartphones: 4 Great Care and Usage Tips

The perks of using a smartphone are things I’m just now getting used to–being able to check my email from anywhere, stay updated on news and social media without turning on the computer, and having true mobile gaming, among many other things.

But smartphones also bring with them a new set of concerns. What do you do about scratches and shattered cases–do you try to repair or get a new phone? How do you charge the thing without feeling deprived for hours as it lies connected firmly to the wall?

While the following post is not a comprehensive list of smartphone hacks, these are all things I’ve personally used to make my smartphone-owning life a lot easier. I think these tips can help you, too.

#1: Use Airplane Mode

airplanemode
One of the greatest tricks I ever learned from the Internet was how to use Airplane Mode to charge my phone WAY faster. In Airplane Mode (found in Settings, most likely), your phone doesn’t have to use energy for data or cell phone signal, so the battery can charge super-fast. However, Airplane Mode also works great for those times when your data or wireless signal is being a little bit finicky–toggling Airplane Mode on and off in the space of about a minute is akin to resetting your wireless router.

#2: Buy a Strong, Protective Case

A case that fully covers your phone (to protect against scratches) and is strong enough to withstand drops is much better than paying for a new phone every few months. I personally use the Otterbox Defender, which has already saved my iPhone (and my sanity) several times. This article at Hongkiat.com shows a few other tough smartphone cases. These cases ARE a bit bulkier, but they do the job.

#3: Clean Your Screen

Clean your screen and any other exposed bits of your smartphone regularly with a soft cloth and spray meant for eyeglasses–I use just a little squirt of eyeglass spray on the cloth, and then wipe down the screen to get rid of collected face and fingertip grease. This helps SO much to not have to touch a dirty greasy phone every day!

#4: Shut Down and Restart Every Week

If you think that shutting down and restarting is only for your computer, think again. I’ve gotten into the practice of shutting down and restarting my phone every Sunday night–it REALLY helps the performance of my phone. After all, that smartphone you hold is a miniature computer; it needs a little rest and relaxation, too! This can really help if you’re having some weird performance issues or display bugs. (Just like with the computers, turning it off and on again can fix most things, LOL)

The Pros and Cons of Straight Hair

There are quite a few blog articles out there about dealing with curly hair, but not a lot about straight hair, I’ve noticed. Most folks believe that curly hair is the harder type of hair to deal with, whereas straight hair seems “easier.” As an owner of straight hair, I believe I may be able to set the record straight (hee hee) about how it is to live with straight hair (and to love it, in fact!).

A Little Background, Please

I’ve had stick-straight, fine hair my entire life, and up until a few years ago, I despaired of being able to do anything with it. With my oval face shape and curvier body size, big, glossy, voluminous curls looks REALLY great on me…BUT they take many hours and lots of product to achieve. (And even then, the curls aren’t guaranteed to stay. See: prom night, when I let down my sponge-rollers after 17 hours of letting my mousse- and gel-soaked hair dry in them…and promptly saw that hard-won curl relax into straightness again. Much ARGH.) And what about the Great Brillo-Pad Spiral Perm of 1991? Let’s just not go there. :S

But a few years ago, I realized that even though I didn’t have the big amazing curls I thought I wanted, I did have something quite lovely in its own regard; straight, shiny hair.

straighthair_texture
This is how my hair dries naturally, with no product in it at all–glossy, smooth, and straight. For years I bemoaned the fact that I could do nothing “cool” with my hair…not realizing that this style was “cool” in and of itself. There are curly-haired girls who get up extra-early every morning and work for two solid hours to get their hair to look like this (much to my surprise!).

straighthair_length
I’ve generally kept my hair long and center-parted like this, and so I’ve ended up with a head of fairly easy-care hair, quite by accident. Many women cannot say that; they continue to fight their natural texture every day, as I did for several years. I suppose the big difference is that I finally got tired of fighting my hair texture and decided to run with it instead.

So, without further ado, I present to you “The Pros and Cons of Straight Hair;” straight-haired girls will probably nod and laugh, and curly-haired girls may just sit and wonder at how the “other half” lives. LOL

Pros of Straight Hair Cons of Straight Hair
  • No need for frizz serums
  • Very, VERY shiny 😀
  • Looks tidy and sleek without much effort
  • Smooths down flat to your head for sophisticated updos
  • Braids easily
  • A little easier to detangle (note, I said “a little”)
  • Easy to part
  • Things wash out of it easily (shampoo, peanut butter, marinara sauce…hey, I have long hair that likes to dip itself in food occasionally)
  • Strong, doesn’t break off easily
  • Want volume? Really? Seriously? Uh, NO.
  • Barrettes, clips, and bobby pins slide right out of your hair if they aren’t glued in or cemented in with hairspray (NOT kidding)
  • Shows greasy roots/excess hair product very easily
  • “Bedhead” texture = not cute with straight hair. More like “strung-out-on-something” texture.
  • Hair elastics must be wrapped around the hair 3 or 4 times for it to hold the hair firmly enough
  • Curling your straight hair? Don’t bother if your hair is longer than shoulder-length; the sheer weight of your hair will drag the curl right out in MINUTES.
  • Hairspray turns straight hair into an unmoving mass, like a frozen curtain
  • Any clip or barrette that has been put into your hair runs the risk of leaving a very noticeable “dent” in your hair when it’s taken out (very unflattering)

What do you think? Have I hit the nail on the head (or the hair)? 😛 Let me know in the comments!