| Straighten Out! |
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“Please, Carrie!” my sister pleaded.
“Oh, come on! Can’t you just figure it out?” I asked her.
“No! You know I’m horrid with hair!” she complained, her face pleading.
“Fine!” I said, standing up. “Let’s go to the store and I’ll help you get the stuff you need,” I grumbled. She smiled and happily followed me out of the house. I was silent the whole way to the store, brooding, but when we got there, my sister’s happy attitude won out and I smiled as I led her to the hair care area.
“So, if you want to be able to straighten your hair, you can do it two different ways--” I told her, “-- with a blow dryer or with a straightener. Which do you want to use?”
She seemed thoughtful for a long time and finally said. “Let’s just get both, and then I can do my hair however and whenever.” I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly, but didn’t argue.
“So now, you need to decide what kind of blow dryer you want. An ionic dryer would probably be better, but those are more expensive and a regular dryer will do the trick,” I said. She looked at the shelves for a while again and finally chose one of the ionic kinds. “Now, a straightener,” I instructed. “One with a ceramic plate would be best, since you have frizzy hair.” She finally picked one and I sighed in relief.
“Alright; let’s go back home and I’ll show you how to use it,” I said, leading her to the register. She bought her items and we went home. Once there I had her shampoo and condition her hair and then towel dry it vigorously.
“Ok, now, take your hair and divide it into three sections, like this,” I said, dividing the hair so that she had three parts, one on each side and one in the back. “Now, for using the blow dryer, just take your brush,” I indicated the round brush, “and take a little at a time, pulling out the hair while you blow dry it. Start underneath.” I watched as she carefully did so and I nodded, smiling slightly.
“Ok, now for the straightener,” I said. “Dry this side.” I pointed to the side of her head that she hadn’t straightened with the blow dryer.
“Just dry regularly?” she asked and I nodded. “Ok.” She dried her hair quickly and when it was done she looked at me, waiting for instruction. I was busy trying not to laugh because her hair was so frizzy.
“Oh, shush!” she finally said, realizing why I was silent and wouldn’t look at her. I burst out laughing. “I know, I know! I didn’t put anything in to keep the frizz out!” she said, making a face at me. “Cassie! Come on, show me how to straighten it!”
I finally stopped laughing and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m alright. Let’s do this!” I took the straightener off of the counter where it had been warming up and moved the top half of my sister hair up, clipping it so that it wouldn’t fall down. “You have to start from the bottom, again. You just clamp it on and pull slowly, but not too slowly, you don’t want to burn your hair, down the strand. Make sure the strands aren’t too big because then you’ll just burn the hair on the outside and it won’t straighten correctly,” I said, demonstrating with a piece of her hair. She watched in the mirror and when I finished, curling the edge slightly towards her face, she nodded.
“It’s always pretty if it frames your face,” I said, demonstrating on another strand, “So just tilt it towards your face at the end, not too much though, you don’t want it to look like you have a kink in your hair. It takes some practice but it’s not too hard.”
She smiled at me and I smiled back. “Thanks, Cassie!” she said and I laughed.
“Don’t mention it. I wouldn’t want any of the boys to miss my beautiful little sister. Of course, it’d be their loss,” I said, laughing with her. “You’ll have a whole group following you at this rate,” I stated, playing with a straightened strand.
“Yeah, how exciting,” she said, laughing. |
