Time for a TRUCE! (With your hair.)

Mondays are the worst hair days in the entire galaxy. Dunno why, they just ARE. With the possible exception of the five minutes before that really important date/party/interview/photo session, your hair always looks its worst at 7am on a Monday morning.

You could sleep late. OR - you could declare a truce, call off the war and accept your hair for what it is. Because the unassailable truth here is that what you see is what you got. It came from your parents in their little genetic gift package to you. Nothing is going to change it until nanotechnology comes up with a way to detour the brown and frizzy gene into the blonde and silky slot. Ain't happened yet. So you're stuck with it!! Best way to deal with this? Accept it. I'm not saying learn to love it but try to learn to live with it. Love comes later.

Stand in front of a mirror with a pencil and paper and make notes about your hair. "My hair IS..." Straight/curly/thick/thin/frizzy/lank. Long/short/layered/inbetween. It's brown/grey/blonde/sandy/red/orange/blue... whatever. Be honest. Nobody's going to see this list but you. When you finally realize that your hair is thin, brown and limp and nothing you do will EVER change the molecular structure of those locks, then you can move on to stage 2 of the negotiated truce - making it look halfway decent.

First and most important - say a tearful farewell to that style you've always wanted. Turn your back on the urge to yearn for someone else's "Do". Blindingly shiny and smooth black bob? Thick blonde tresses falling to your ass? Ain't gonna happen unless the genes say so. Also give up on yearning for those celebrity styles. Think about the HOURS and the number of people involved in getting them ready for those red-carpet appearances. I reckon the Desperate Housewives look just like any other housewife on a Monday morning. Then the stylists/makeup artists get to work and BINGO. Instant glamour that only took about two hours, eight products, four people, three appliances and a filter on the lens of the camera!!!! Three trees died in the Amazon rain forest because of it. We don't want that, do we? (Who said yes? Tsk. Tsk.)

So you can't look like Beyonce or Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a shame, but on the other hand? You can look like YOU! Armed with your hair specifications list, you can now go browse about a gazillion websites looking for styles/cuts/products designed to make the most of YOUR hair. Do NOT go to celebrity sites. Commercial sites for hair products aren't much help either, since those models with the glorious shining locks? Well, they started with the "shiny straight" gene and went from there. If you don't have that gene...you're setting yourself up for failure.

It's all about working with YOUR hair, making the most of it and learning to accept what you CAN do with it. And, if possible, not regretting what you CAN'T do with it. You got thin flyaway hair? Try some layers and a volumizing product. Thick frizzy hair? Smoothing balms with silicon for shine. Stop by the travel-size/sample section of your local store and find something that is targeted for YOUR kind of hair. Got a Beauty Supply store near you? Spend half an hour wandering up and down and look for stuff YOU could use.

Accepting what we are is one of the hardest things to do. Seeing ourselves as beautiful no matter what the hairstyle? Nope. Doesn't happen very often. But we can stop agonizing every Monday over hair that won't do what we want it to do and realize that maybe we're asking it to do the wrong thing. Finding out the RIGHT thing will make you and your hair a lot happier. And if all else fails, remember there's somebody out there who really wants YOUR hair just as much as you'd like theirs. If you run across the person who wants mine, let me know. We'll go get drunk together. LOL