Money Can't Buy This

As soon as my hair started to grow out a little bit I was bombarded with the question that has haunted me my entire life: Do you have a perm?

I can’t tell you how irritating and offensive this question is. Irritating because, if you’ve ever seen someone with a perm, you’d know that the texture of my hair is very different. In fact it’s completely different. Offensive because, really, do I look like the kind of person who would get a perm? Let’s just be honest.

People with straight hair get some slack – I mean, how would they really know? But the other day I was doing a middle school program for a teacher with crazy, curly, frizzy hair when I was asked the question: “Did you perm your hair? I don’t remember it being so curly the last time I saw you.”
“Ohh – ha, no. It gets curlier as it gets longer,” I said, when what I really wanted to say was “Are you fucking kidding me? Don’t you know how to recognize your own kind?! Get a hold of yourself, woman!”

I decided, after not even being recognized as an honest-to-goodness-natural-curly-girl by someone in the family that the next time I’m asked the question I’ll simply answer: No. Do you think perms look this good?