The hair on your head

Tonight at salon, we took pictures of ourselves at three ages--a small child, a middle-something, and a current one.  What a travel in time it is to look at former pictures and watch as the lines of the face change right before your very eyes, one after the other, too fast to believe!  It's enough to give me emotional whiplash.

We didn't know what we were going to do with the pictures until Kara announced the topic: Hair.  How do we feel about our hair?  How does it express who we are and how we feel about ourselves as women?

First, we talked about our mothers' hair.  I had to admit that mine wraps her hair in toilet paper every night and sleeps on a silk pillow!  She was the only one of our mothers to do that.

Then, we talked about our own hair over the years.  I remembered Betty--closest person to a sister--fixing my hair for special occasions.  I'm clueless about hair and have never spent much time on it.  I like a cut that I can scrunch up after a shampoo and go.

Day, my daughter, has very thick and curly hair.  She should have had a mother with Betty's hair-fixing skill.  Elena, my granddaughter, has curly hair, too.  "When mommy cut it, I had a feeling of sad," she told me.

It was fun to see everyone's pictures--from childhood to middle years to now.  Salon always brings up the kinds of topics that make me think.

We're expecting a hard freeze tonight, so I'm shopping for leggings and pajamas.  Our winters are so short and far between that I never can remember what I have to wear from one year to the next.  But I'm glad for long hair on these cold winter nights!

Last night, I watched Strangers in Good Company again.  I rarely watch a movie a second time, but this one is so good!  Betty and Carlene and I saw it in Atlanta in 1990 when it first came out--the story of seven women (not actors)  stranded in a beautiful place when their bus breaks down.  As the women get to know each other, the film flashes into the past with photographs of them at earlier ages.

One of the most poignant scenes in the film happens between the bus driver and an 80-year-old woman who wears a wig to cover her thinning hair. When the bus driver urges her to take off the wig, you can feel the reluctance of the woman to reveal her hair, but she does--with a look of daring and courage on her face.