12/14 Rhapsody on Conditioner

I'm a girl.

I've mentioned it before, but I know that the anonymity I hide behind means that some of you didn't know, or had forgotten. (Kauthar? Is that a boy's name?)

I've never been much of a girly-girl.

I didn't play with Barbies, I don't read fashion magazines, and even in America, my morning ablutions took significantly less than half an hour, counting both showering and dressing.

But every once in a while, something hits my feminine streak, and I think pink-tinted thoughts. If this disturbs you, feel free to move onto another posting. Far be it from me to inflict girl cooties on anyone.

Today, what's sparking the pink-think? Conditioner. Hair conditioner.

I haven't used conditioner in Morocco in 21 months. (I don't remember if I used someone else's when I was in the US for a wedding...I don't think so, though.) I generally shower and/or bucket-bathe once a week. Depending on the weather - is it really hot? dusty? - I wash my hair either two or three times. Usually three times. The shampoo doesn't even lather up the first time, as the saponin just bonds to grease and rinses out. The second time, it's nice and frothy. The third round I use Pantene Shampoo&Conditioner - the only combo S&C product I've ever used, in any country, that actually seems to *condition* my hair at all - and my hair is good for another week.

This has been my routine for almost two years now. The only variant is that I might leave off the S&C if I know it'll be over a week till the next shower, and that only happens rarely.

But a few weeks ago, my sitemate finished her service and returned to America [[moment of silence...]] and one of the things she left behind was a giant bottle of conditioner. Giant. Enormous. Cost-Co ginormous.

Pantene Pro-V Contitioner.

So I've been using it.

And WOW.

I'd forgotten my hair could feel like this.

So smooth.

So soft.

It swishes when I walk.

It slides over my shoulders when I turn my head.

It slips out from behind my ears to swing freely as I move.

I'm sure my hair did some of these things before. But somehow I'm only noticing them now. I think that the less-conditioned strands were a little wavier, and therefore clung together more, whereas now, they're hanging straighter and more independently. I think.

One side effect of weekly showering - and of having only a small face mirror in an awkward corner of my apartment - is that I don't think about my appearance all that much. My hair does what it does; as long as it's brushed before I leave the house, I figure I've done what I can.

But in the past two weeks or so that I've been using the conditioner, I keep *thinking* about my hair.

I can't help it - I keep feeling it.

Swish, swish, swish...

I feel like I should have a slumber party where we all brush and braid each other's hair. Whee! Hair fun!

OK, girlie rhapsodizing over. My mental age is returning from 6 to 26. Please return to your regularly-scheduled blog-reading, and forgive this lapse from my Responsible Peace Corps Volunteer Sober Demeanor.

Squeeeee! :D