"Hair today - gone tomorrow??"

I have had long hair a time or two in my life. My tresses look long and curly here. But then my mother's hair looks curly too - and that was not natural - that had to be a bobby-pin 'do! So maybe mine was too. At this point in my life, I have a memory of Lyn dunking my head in the oil pan in the garage that sat under our car - I actually don't remember the dunking, but I do remember having my hair washed several times in a row with Tide - to get the oil out. It really stung - that memory has not vanished.

My mom preferred short hair though - on everyone. Every Easter we'd cut a cut and perm from her friend who was a beautician. Sometimes I didn't mind the perm - sometimes I did. This shot looks like I don't need any kind of perm - if you look closely at current photos of me, you will see that I still have that wave line. It has not disappeared with the arrival of the gray.

As I got older, I was more emphatic about not having a perm. As it turned out, my hair was - and still is - naturally wavy - the bane of my existence.

And during most of my teen years in junior and senior high school, I preferred a short hair do a la Mary Martin and Peter Pan. I think when you are thin and young, you can get away with any hair do. As I got older and less thin, I felt that short hair was less flattering. (I think it really has nothing to do with hair and everything to do with how I perceive myself when I am not thin! Ah, such vanity!)

I soon discovered that long hair and a baby was a lot of work - and trouble - but I kept my hair long - I just always wore it in a ponytail. When Bonny was just a few weeks old, I was feeding her early in the a.m. She spit up - a lot - and this time, when she did, it went straight down my long pony tail! Yikes, what was I to do? What I did was rinse off my ponytail, wrap it in a towel, and went back to bed!

This shot is from 1988 - after about 1993 or so, I started keeping my hair shorter - as the gray came, I didn't want to be one of those women with long gray hair.

Although I have long coveted the long gray locks of Emmy Lou Harris. If my hair would just go all gray.

I'd probably find something to complain about though!