Saturday 23 March 2013

The coiffure chat

I made an appointment with a coiffeuse last Saturday after a period of four months - thanks to the impending spring holidays in Bali I'm longing for later this month -  bidding adieu to the pesky frizzy every day wave affair. 

Ever since I was a toddler I was following my mum's footsteps - she had long tresses, charcoal black, straight but a little wavy, shone like fine strands of silk, thick and gorgeous that came tumbling down beneath her knees - I too genetically inherited her long thick straight but a little wavy black mane but not as beautiful and ravishing as my mum's. Her tress tales, even today although age has started to clip its sheen, invite many a lady's envy and leave them itching for the established attribute of a woman's beauty. She, of course, went an extra mile to take care of her free flowing extra mane. Regular oiling, having fish in her diet and applying homemade hair pack (mixing amla, reetha, sheekakai) once in a week, plaiting her hair before hitting the bed in the night, helped her wear those black long locks with pride. I remember, her telling me when I was a kid, that when she was in her school and college days and ran on a tightier budget she could not even think of buying a bottle of shampoo.

Prior to fleeing the nest my mum took care of my locks as best as she could juggling between her work, home, kids, and kitchen garden. Despite my screaming and countless tears, she used to brush my hair everyday with a desparation trying to emphasise my feminity and making a spectacle of versatility of her natural black mane. Poor me - little did I make sense of it then that a mother daughter tress tales would actually benefit me rebuilding my already inherited healthy hair years later!

I started treading the hirsute journey with a great ardor in my late twenties - when I was packed off as a marriage material. The thought of bridal finery only complete with a comely hairdo on the D-day helped me fan my pruriency on tangible sides of life - I kicked off with my hair! Thus began the odessey with my mane.

Invariably I wanted to get the celebrity glow on my mane and drifted from one cosmetic indulgence to another. Hopping to a regular salon and hair dresser did not end my tress woes either. Open to experimenting with different hair products and hair colours from taming frizz to volumnizing flat hair for hogging the celebrity style limelight I forgot to indulge in my wellbeing to relax and rejuvenate.

With a demanding profession and marriage came stress bearing enormous negative impacts on my health. I was inept to life's real face - struggling to keep up to it's daily doses even now. However, I was hell bent on weaving a magic and set my heart and mind to it for a postive and optimistic frame of mind and body. And this realisation made me fall in love with my long black mane once again! The bygone mum-taking-care compassionate times blanketed my emotional keel.

I now pamper myself to a regular deep conditioning hot oil massage for strong and nourished strands, whole egg and yolk-only treatments once in a month for lustrous and soft hair and religiously swear by L'oreal's INOA hair colour products and treatments to beautiful hair. There are lots of hair care posts on the internet available (hair care varies from person to person due to different hair textures) educating and inspiring people to improve their health and happiness. Topping it all is eating healthy and drinking water adequately ultimately helps you with the image turnover.

Talking about the latest trends, I admit being a poor resource on this and leave that in the hands of the adroit professionals at A Cut Above - my present salon de beauté, with confidence.

I love long layers which is very feminine. Maybe this is what I inherited best from my mum - never did I realise before that her gestures with my black locks in my growing up years was a candid coiffure chat she wanted to convey.

The twig gradually branching out...