I know someone who can fix that! by Deb Eve

img_2568 I have good hair. I know this because this was the mantra I grew up with. “This is my granddaughter, Evie,” my grandmother said to everyone she met. “She has good hair.” I felt really proud of that. Had no idea what it meant – perhaps it was my hair that was responsible for my straight A’s and excellent classroom behavior throughout elementary school. By that token, it probably was my older brother’s lack of good hair that was holding him back. And perhaps it was my hair – fueled by adolescent angst and boundary testing – that caused me to misbehave once I got to middle school. Could be. After all, it was in middle school that my mother permed it into an afro (a legitimate ‘fro: I could – and did – stash an afro pick in it) and to this day I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Did I – or my mother or anyone for that matter – think I needed MORE curl? BIGGER hair?

Things settled down somewhat in high school. That was a time – fueled by drugs and rock concerts – when it was fashionable (at least in my grungy crowd) for all the girls with lovely, well-behaving straight locks to perm their hair into a mop of ringlets and wear it wild. Suddenly, I was in.

When worn long – and heavy – my hair does run the risk of posing a threat to civilization as we know it. And as a kindness to all of humanity, I try to keep it short. It cooperates by being wash-and-wear which is a damn good thing because I don’t own a brush and only recently purchased a hair blower so I could look respectable for my author photo. A hairdresser once told me, “Stevie Wonder could cut your hair.” Unfortunately, Stevie Wonder didn’t come with us to Uganda, so I had to let St. John do it. He was convinced that he was practically an expert since he had thoroughly studied a slim volume entitled, “How to cut your own hair” before we left Brooklyn. And he did have a scissor, which gave him a big leg up on the local competition. Besides, I was delirious with malaria at the time.

Well, St. John cut my hair and seemed pretty darn proud of his handiwork. And from what I could see in the tiny mirror we had and the back of the spoon I had to use to see the back of my head, it looked good enough to me, too (let’s remember the aforementioned malaria here). That is, until we got down to the capital city and an ex-pat friend of mine took one look at me and said, “Oh dear, I know someone who can fix that!”

~Deb Eve

6 Replies to “I know someone who can fix that! by Deb Eve”

  1. Ah, so you get to blame all of your exploits on your hair? Dancing on the table at the wedding… getting arrested for protesting… that hair needs to learn how to behave! 😉

    Is your hair planning to party at all for your book release? Which is in, uh, FOUR DAYS?

  2. Ah, my hair is going to get all party prepped this afternoon. And yes, I’ll be bringing my TIARA to make sure my new party-ready hair shows off my tiara (small birds have been known to get lost in my hair – we want to be sure the tiara shows up!) My toes got ready for the party yesterday!

    And your toes and hair, Deb Katie … are they getting party ready too????

  3. I’m excited for you launch, Eve! And your party-ready hair. Hope you both have a wild and wonderful time celebrating next week.

  4. Oh, I remember that story from MALARIA. One of my favorite anecdotes. St. John could do practically everything, but your hair was his Waterloo!

    I would love to see pictures of that tiara.

  5. OK, I have had enough…I never permed Eve’s hair…I permed my hair into a red frizzy afro…and oh how I regretted that…you can see the results in one of Eve’s photos on facebook. I never permed Eve’s hair…she had curls for god’s sake…I did however cut it, streak it and take it to task. Good hair…grandma meant…like her mother, Eve’s great-grandmother Eve. Excuse me… the boys and nice hair…but not GOOD HAIR. Good hair meant, I guess, hair which could save you if you were drowning, hid illegal weapons…(small ones), could be knitted into clothing, help you sleep if you didn’t have a pillow, and drive you mother crazy trying to show it off and use her hair dressing skills. I have good hair too, but it is not curly…it is thick and holds a curl. Well, not so much now, as it is about an inch long and busy hiding the grey. Hair is a woman’s crowning glory…it is seductive and can be used as a tool of “mating”(except not so good on legs, face and underarms, unless the guy is into that). It is also a great song…in the musical Hair…which if you all have seen the movie…look closely…we were in the crowd scenes…remember Evie??

    Besides all that…Eve’s looked stunning at her wedding to St. John.
    Have a good holiday everyone.

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