memory lane monday

For as long as I can remember, hair has always been a really big deal for me. I remember being about this age and wrapping towels around my head to pretend I had long, blond hair.

My life pretty much changed when I was about this age. I was at Movies 8 with a couple of friends, and I needed to go to the restroom. As with most restrooms at movie theaters, this one was packed right before the movie began. There was a lady walking out of the restroom with her young daughter as I was walking in. The lady, thinking she was being kind, told her daughter in a really sweet, soft spoken tone., "Sweetie, move over so the boy can walk past." Boy?! BOY?!? I am NOT a boy!!! I think I have been traumatized ever since. I walked back into the movie theater and tried my hardest to hold back the tears forming in my eyes. I have no idea what movie I watched, or even who I was with that day, but that memory of being called a boy has seared in my memory ever since.

After that, I was convinced I needed to buy the shampoos I saw on TV, you know, the ones that made hair "silky." My mom sometimes bought the ones I wanted and I was always disappointed after showering that my hair didn't look like the white actresses on TV. When I was a little older, we started trying out relaxers (they're kind of like perms but they make your hair straight instead of curly). Unfortunately we never had great results. Eventually I got my first flat iron (back in 6th grade before anyone else even knew what a flat iron was). But they weren't all that powerful back then and this is about as good as my hair ever got. (I sometimes even slept with a baseball cap on so that in the morning my hair wouldn't be as poofy).

When I was in junior high, my first trip to TLC Elegante in Salt Lake changed my life. For the first time ever, my hair was really straight. I finally had the silky beautiful hair I always wanted. The silky effect only lasted until the next time I washed my hair, but who cared? I had pretty white girl hair. Not too long afterwards my family moved to Idaho and then to Hawaii and I was never able to find another salon owned and run by black people.

When I moved back to Utah 3 years ago to go to law school, it had been so long since I had gone anywhere to get my hair done professionally (I had since gotten pretty good at making my own hair look ok), that I didn't even think about looking up TLC again. But there was another lone black girl going to law school with me and one day I happened to ask her where she got her hair done. She told me none other than TLC Elegante (which is really the only place I know of in Utah that does black hair). So once again, I made the 45 minute drive back up to the place that brought me so much happiness a decade earlier. Since it is kind of pricey, I only go there once or twice a year. But it is still worth every penny.