Childhood Hair Memories

[BlueKittyMeow]

What are some of your favorite (or most striking :P) memories of hair from when you were a child?

My grandmother used to tell me "go in my room and fetch my hair brush" and I would go to her dresser and pull the brush out of her special draw of scarves and perfumes. It was a pale pink acrylic brush with stiff white bristles and I can still remember how sharp and springy it would feel. I would sit in front of her on the floor and she would brush my hair for me. She loved long hair - she was old fashioned in a charming way and she loved that I wore skirts and that I kept it long. The feeling of her running the brush over my hair was so soothing and relaxing and such a special bonding moment. I was very very shy as a child and this was one of the times we were closest. I can still vividly recall the feeling...

Does anyone else have any memories, good or bad, that they can share?

[Wildcat Diva]

Great thread idea!

I remember my mom using a device called The Purr by
Gillette to detangle my hair. I did not like sitting there and being patient. I remember the Johnson and Johnson detangling spray.

[Katia_k]

I have mostly bad hair memories from my childhood, though there are a few good ones mixed in there:

-Dad brushing my tangled curly hair with dad fingers and pulling to the point where we still have "you want me to brush your hair?" as a joke threat in the family.
-Hating french braids until I was in college because I associated them with horrific scalp pain from all the pulling.
-The barney-themed hair detangler mom used, which was actually super effective and kinda smelled good...I kinda missed that stuff it really worked.
-Being 12 and learning how to braid pigtail braids in my best friend's bedroom (her mom actually had long hair so she knew how to do that kind of thing better than my mom).

There's the random collection...

[lithostoic]

My older cousin used to let me play with her hair when I was around 6. She was a teenager and had long 2c/3a curls. I would carefully brush her ringlets into soft waves and practice various hairstyles.

[school of fish]

When I was a child my mom kept my hair pixie'd until she felt I was old enough to care for it reasonably well myself (which meant around 11 years old or so), and I desperately wanted long hair... so when I was really young I simulated long hair by taking one of my 70s knitted ponchos and pulling the neckband over my head like a hairband, letting the rest of the poncho trail over my shoulders and down my back... I was a beautiful princess with long flowing hair so long as I wore that poncho on my head

[BlueKittyMeow]

when I was really young I simulated long hair by taking one of my 70s knitted ponchos and pulling the neckband over my head like a hairband, letting the rest of the poncho trail over my shoulders and down my back... I was a beautiful princess with long flowing hair so long as I wore that poncho on my head

This reminds me of Anne of Green Gables! I was just watching the newer adaptation, "Anne with an E" and when she is pretending to be "Princess Cordelia" she has this crocheted lace throw that she wears upon her head. Playing pretend was SO much fun as a child, and so hard to recapture! I love your story

[BlueKittyMeow]

-Hating french braids until I was in college because I associated them with horrific scalp pain from all the pulling.

Oh my goodness, YES. And I had no idea how to do them, and my mother didn't know either, so I only ever got them from other kids' moms... I would usually get really tight ones before soccer or softball games and oh my god, the scalp pain!
I think they're really neat now :P

[neko_kawaii]

Trying to braid pigtails tight enough they stuck straight out like Pippi.

High school sports teams french braiding each other's hair before a game. I don't think anyone could french braid their own hair.

[Jo Ann]

My Mom doing my hair in a ponytail--she'd pull it so tight, it felt my eyelids were slanted (think "Instant Face Lift).

Getting my hair cut in a pixie, whether I wanted it cut or not. To this day, Me + Pixie = Ain't Happening

Taking turns with my sister brushing each other's hair.

[spidermom]

I used to love to comb my grandmother's approximately classic length hair when I was very young. Then I got to be around 12 or 13 and started trying to talk her into getting her hair cut like all the other women her age at our church. She told me her daughters would be upset if she cut it. So I asked my mom and aunts and they said they didn't care. When I told my grandmother she should get her hair cut because her daughters didn't care, she told me "what people say and what they mean is often two different things.