All these years in Uganda, I've admired plaited hair from afar. (Braided with extensions) I've always thought it was gorgeous. I've had several American and European friends who had their hair braided here. And I loved it!
Well, in all the admiring...my sweet friends left out one MINOR detail about the whole braiding, plaiting phenomenon....
IT HURTS!!!!!!!
Oh my goodness.
I started at 9 AM and the first little bit pulled and smarted pretty good. But I was set to be tough. I was ready...excited to see how it would all turn out.
Well..that optimism degenerated over the next 5 increasingly excruciating hours into HATE. I hated the lovely girls yanking and pulling on my head, I hated the other 20 women on the porch braiding or being braided....I hated the world. No kidding.
I'm sure I'll get over it. It has now been 6 hours since the tortuous task ended and....my head still hurts. All my friends have said I'll feel better in two days and not to expect to sleep well. Great.
So the up-side:
*I have a really cool do...that I am proud of.
*I feel like I have sort of stepped through an African woman's rite of passage...
*I am now well aquainted with every teeny little nerve in my scalp....I mean EVERY ONE.
*I have officially forgiven my Mom for all those painful, pointy-hot-roller episodes. You were right Mom, it COULD be worse!
Now I'm going to go take some Ibuprofen and try to sleep. On my face.
7 comments:
I love it! You will probably do it again. How long will it stay like that?
Cheryl you need to know that I had to laugh when I first read your post. It looks really good on you, but I know it hurts. Not from personal experience because I have no hair, but from Alasha who I have watched go through it numerous times. God be with you and the sleeping on of your face.
You look beautiful!! Hope you get some sleep. I'm glad that you & Kaelea could have that experience together. :)
Cool hair,Sis!!! A word of warning. When we were in Hawaii, Darla had her hair braided. She spent the next day at the beach not realizing that her head was now unprotected from the sun. She was very badly sun-burned on her scalp. So stay out of that equator sun without a hat. LOVE YOU!!
You are hysterical, Cheryl! I'm proud of you for passing the test. Whenever I am over there again, read me your post if I start getting crazy ideas about braids.
I agree with Alex, it is cool to be like Granddad (and Steve Maxwell), no muss, no fuss. Ah, but then there is the equatorial sun, or any sun. And then there are the trips to the dematologist and his knife. Hmmmm? On second thought yours is beautiful.
I wanted braids so bad when we were in East Africa. We had set appointments, but our train to Nairobi was late, so there was only time for one of us. I let the other girl have hers done (self-sacrifice, you know) and about 10 minutes into it, I was so glad it was her and not me! And to make matters worse, her hair all broke off when she took the braids out. It was a good example for me that sometimes things we think are a huge sacrifice and hard to give up were not actually worth it after all.
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