When I was 10 I was flipping through a magazine and saw this:

I remember asking my mom how she got her hair like that; my mom replied by saying she probably curled it, had multiple people styling it and that it was photoshopped afterwards.

I’m so thankful for that answer, because I’m incredibly insecure about my hair even with that. I can’t imagine what it would have done to my self esteem if my mom had told me other people had hair that was like that always.

It was universal; this was the kind of hair everyone needed to have

Thick and luscious,

Sleek and shiny,

No frizz anywhere to be seen.

My hair is the exact opposite, extremely fine, dull, frizzy, and the odd in-between texture where it’s neither straight nor curly. Have I mentioned it also never grows?

And don’t even get me started on my hair in humidity. My mom always jokes that no one knows I’m South Indian until they see my hair in the rain, a curly, frizzy mess.

I can work with everything else God has given me, my height and body type which I have grown to love, my skin color, my facial features and even my nose. But every time I walk past a girl with long, bouncy, shiny hair I can’t help but feel a twang of jealousy.