Naturally curly.

Last night, after a Date at a nice restaurant, Lee and I stopped by a bookstore in town. This is an independent bookstore, recently opened, and we wanted to see what kind of stuff they had. It's in a old post office, so it's quite big and it doesn't look like they're done filling it up yet, but they had a decent selection of books. I was checking out their "health & fitness" section to see if they had any yoga books when I found a book that I first heard about from Donutzenmom: Curly Girl: the handbook.

When I started doing Bikram yoga I realized I had to do something about my hair. I usually kept it fairly short and used a blow dryer to straighten it, but I left each class with seriously frizzy, crazy hair. Because it was short, it wasn't crazy in a good way, either. It's so humid here for much of the year that frizzy, crazy hair was a regular problem, but hot yoga kind of brought it to a head (har har). I decided to start letting it grow and curl in hopes that it would be less maintenance for me and that it would look better after a sweaty class.

So I've been letting it grow for about eight months, with regular trims. I like it much better and it is lower maintenance, but I haven't been very happy with my trims, and the growing out period has been a little bit difficult. On the days when my hair is big and bushy and a mess, I thought about getting it all chopped off again.

I had no idea there were entire books devoted to curly hair until Donutzenmom mentioned it on her blog. I put this book on my Amazon wish list and kind of forgot about it until last night.

When I got home, I read the entire thing and I think it has the potential to change my life! Along with advice on how to care for and cut curly hair, there were lots of anecdotes from other curly-haired women and with each one, I found myself nodding in agreement as they talked about fighting their curly hair for most of their lives. I've done that too, ever since I was little, when I used to wear a baby blanket on my head like a wig and pretend it was my long, straight hair. I can't wait to try some of the things suggested in the book and in a few months, when my hair has grown some more, I'm going to find a stylist who specializes in curly hair and get a good haircut.

On the other end of the spectrum....I also bought a book called Introduction to Buddhism. If I'm lucky, while I'm on the way to enlightenment, my hair will look good.

I went to advanced primary yesterday morning....good class, though I didn't feel very strong, no doubt due to the late nights and alcohol. I did get bound in supta kurmasana, though, all by myself. John had us do another killer round of urdva dhanurasanas, walking up and back, turning 180 degrees, etcetera, then three for ten counts each. After last week, I knew to ration my strength so I could try to make it through the last three. My arms were so tired afterwards that I could only hold my headstand for ten counts.

I was thinking of going to a hot class late this afternoon, but I'm so tired today that I may just pass it up and go tomorrow night. I also thought about going back into town for an intermediate primary, but I definitely don't have the energy for that. I don't think I've ever willingly passed up an opportunity to go to a class before! As well, it's supposed to be 96 degrees this afternoon, so I could just go sit outside for a while....