Becoming a little more African

I have heard so many times the past couple of days, "Hello African Woman"! Mostly, I've heard it from Adaedae, our house helper. And now she tells me that the next step for me is marrying an African man. Whoa! Let's back up!

So, about a week ago, I went with Rosemary (the Omorefe's 13 year old) to a nearby hair salon to talk about getting our hair plaited (you know, the braids that they get put in their hair so they don't have to take care of it as often?). I was thinking of getting it done before my trip to the Volta (which starts in just a few hours!). So, I agreed on a price and we scheduled the time to come. I wanted longer braids, just because my hair is so short right now, I thought it would be fun to be a little different.

Monday, after school, I raced over to the salon by 4:00. I'd been warned that it hurt and people told me tortuous tales of pain and woe when they go to get their hair plaited (actually, it was mostly the boys who told those tales. . .how would they know??). Maybe it was because I was expecting it to be so bad, but in any case, once the braiding began, I wasn't that overwhelmed by the pain of it. It's like a little pinch on your scalp when it first starts, but it ends soon as the braid moves further from your scalp. I was full of excitement and enthusiasm when the whole process started. The hair I had chosen was kind of a brownish red extension, so I thought it would be fun to be a redhead for awhile. After a few hours of plaiting on the first night, we finally decided to end around 8:30 (with a short break for dinner somewhere in the middle there).

The next day, I went to school with my hair all wrapped up. The kids were so curious and the staff just laughed and laughed. I left right after school that day and headed out to the salon. It was another LONG day of braiding and when it got to be 9:30 pm, we ran out of extensions, so I had to wait ANOTHER day to finish up.

Finally, on Wednesday, I went in and the final extensions were put in. By that time, the extensions didn't hurt so much as my back and my neck from sitting in funny positions while the braids were being finished on the top of my head. After she finished the braids, she trimmed every one of them with scissors and then put them all in boiling water to kind of set them. Then, she coated my hair with some nice smelling lotiony type stuff and I was finally ready to be done. After so many days, it was such a relief to just be done.

Today was the first day that I got to wear my finished hair out and about. I got a lot of compliments and it is kind of fun. It's weird to look at myself in the mirror because it doesn't really look like me. It's kinda rastafarian, which isn't really me, but when I pull it back, it kinda looks more like me. We'll see how long I'll keep it in. It can be really heavy and a little itchy at times, so we'll see how long I can handle it. But for now, it's fun to do something different with my hair and it is nice not to have to wash it (at least as often. . .only every once in a while when my scalp can't take it anymore).

You can check out my pictures on facebook. 12+ hours and I'm loving it!