The Real Me

When I woke up one morning recently and made my way to the bathroom my eyes inadvertently had a quick glance in the mirror. What a shock! Who the he... double hockey stick... was that?

            I had slept badly and my haircut of the day before now made me look like I was a witch wearing some sort of windswept wig. Would I need intense therapy to recover? I remembered a relative saying that he always put a comb to his hair as soon as he woke up so as to not scare his family. He obviously had the right idea.

            I recovered my sense of self worth as soon as I put my hair brush to good use. However, I realized that not all haircuts are created equal, and that the way you sleep does influence how your hair will look first thing in the morning. I sleep on my side which is easily supported visually when I wake up.

            When I was young one of my aunts always had perfectly coiffed hair no matter the time of day. I figured out why one day when I stayed at her house overnight. She wore a heavy hairnet to bed which meant that her hair was not affected by her sleeping position and that it looked great as soon as the net was removed.

            So up I went to the mall in search of a hairnet only to realize that I had to go to a speciality beauty shop to get a heavy one that could prevent my hair from making me look like a freak upon waking up. After trying it for one night, I realized to my disappointment that for some reason it didn’t stay on my head so it did nothing to help my hair stay in place. So what is an aging person supposed to do?

            I finally realized that everyone is basically in the same boat. We simply need to “adjust” ourselves in the morning before facing the world as my relative used to say by keeping a favorite hairbrush at hand. That way we won’t scare anyone especially ourselves.