There Was A Little Girl And She Had A Little Curl.....

.....then she grew into a big girl and gots lots and lots more curls that turned into a mass of frizz whenever the air was a little bit damp. This made the big girl very unhappy.

Then again, she had been unhappy as a little girl with only a little curl. Well, no curl actually.

The unhappy big girl with all the curls hates having curly hair WITH A PASSION. She believes that girls with straight hair who wish for curly hair must need their heads testing. She does, however, appreciate not having thin hair. The curly-haired big girl has very thick hair (described as being like 'tarry rope' by one hairdresser) that takes a long, long time to dry, and to straighten and in fact the curly-haired big girl's right arm is considerably more muscular than the arm that doesn't wield the hair brush when blow-drying.

On the left, rocking the Bettie Page bangs before any of these burlesque girlies, Keshling displays the 'no teeth and beginnings of a camel-toe' look. Thanks Mum. Not that she knocked my teeth out or anything, but she was responsible for the haircut and homemade hot pants. 

Now, the curly-haired knows that there are worse things in the world than having thick, curly hair. There are worse things even than having thick, frizzy hair. But the curly-haired girl didn't have curly hair until she had her first baby, the straight-haired girl known as Red. How is that right? How is that fair? Why did motherhood have to mean 'Goodbye thick, glossy, straight hair....Hello, dry, grey, ball of ringletty frizz'? Little wonder that the curly-haired girl feels duty-bound to spend quite a bit of money on having her troublesome hair dyed, streaked, straightened and teased to within an inch of its life! And oh, the crying and wailing if it rains the following day, or worse still, ON THE WAY HOME FROM THE SALON!!!!!

The curly-haired big girl is sometimes driven to think mean thoughts when she sees young girls with flowing, straight, glossy hair, or young girls who have casually swept their straight, glossy hair into a clip so it looks like a feathery ponytail. In those moments the curly-haired big girl thinks 'You're riding high now lady, but ..cometh the push-chair, cometh the frizz'. And the curly-haired big girl doesn't feel a bit bad. Or horrid.

She gives a secret smile.