I wore my hair curly today to the hospital.

I have (attempted) to wear my hair curly (wavy) about 12 times in my life, and 9 of those times were in college (1.0) or before. One of those times was when I was about 10 and my mom let our neighbor give me an at-home perm that took everywhere except on the crown of my head. That was not cute.

Lately, though, I’ve been noticing that my post-shower waves have become slightly more pronounced. Then, the other day, I happened to hear a girl say that her hair was super straight, but she could rock some waves with this one product. I decided that product was going to be my ticket to glorious beachy waves.

As it turns out, it takes a little more than just that one product. It takes about 3 and some slow-speed blow drying/defusing. But it works. It kind of totally works. The waves make me outrageously happy.

Here’s the thing about having really straight hair for always and then showing up somewhere with waves: people react funny. All day long, people noticed that my hair was different. Some people said, “Woah! Your hair is different!” Others just noted a change, asking, “Huh, what is different?”

My favorite, though, is the people who didn’t say anything at all. The people who just walked by, looked at me, and then, from across the room, would bring their hands to their heads and pat the air around their skulls, as if they were pantomiming “motorcycle helmet” or showing someone the approximate location and size of Bozo the Clown’s wig. No commentary as to whether or not they like the new hair style or if they prefer the old. Just wild hand gestures from the far end of the hallway that communicate the simple idea of, “HEY! I SEE YOUR HAIR IS LARGE TODAY!”