hair day.

hair-day. that's a term used to refer to the acts of a person (female); or events or occurrences, that occur when her hair is unplaited/doesnt have braids in it/has ugly swaz and needs a makeover/is unplaited and is not treated (is natural). hair-day may last more more than a day, and may even stretch to periods as long as a month, especially in crisis times such as when the female unplaits her hair just before school exams. there has been a sustained period of crisis free hair days however, thanks to the closure of the country's main university. this, though, has been interrupted by the need to prepare for a kuhingira function.

hair day. it can start on any day, like a monday, when one realises that the kuhingira is this saturday so it would do one well to start unplaiting. tomorrow of course. there are too many movies too watch for now. the hair-day continues to tuesday where the hair is finally unplaited in the evening when the movies are done and power is off. the female would like to wash her hair herself in case any of those thieves at the salon will wash it with drops of diluted products; and she intends to complete this by tuesday night. however, power comes back on and more movies are showing. ugly as it may seem, hair-days include spending a night in your bed with hair that hasn't been washed in a month, thus the use of all the bandanas and scarfs that u always see lying around the female's room, that u never really see her wear.

the day, in such a circumstance as this, is forced to continue to wednesday, where the female intends to wash hair first thing in the morning, and get it blow dried, before a meeting at 7 o'clock pm. however, lack of bigger crisis periods like exams has suddenly induced a habit of sleeping in the mornings and after breakfast, and thru to late afternoon, especially since certain siblings have taken possession of the tv. it is the screaming from one of the siblings reminding the female that it is her turn to cook supper, that prompts her to take action. yes, tiring as it may be, hairdays can include bustling about, trying to cook and boil water to wash her at the same time, while screaming at whoever has any shampoo one can borrow. hair is finally ready to be washed at 6:30pm, before the meeting at 7. hair-days, i must add, include regretting why u didnt just let the thieves wash your hair earlier before the thought of doing it yourself made u sleep harder the whole afternoon.

hair-days. they can be helpful when u wake up on thursday morning bursting out of bed with purpose. the salons had no power the previous night, so u couldnt blow dry the hair. rather than being in time for the meeting with a bandana tied over a half-wet baby afro, u opted to be one hour late because of hot-combing. of course, the salon lady didn't use enough oil so the hair is back to it's afro state by thursday morning, hence the bout of purpose. the female thanks God that she did not wash her hair that woman's salon as well.

hair-days. they have a way of creeping up on u when u are utterly broke. but that's what big sisters are for. the bouts of purpose have forced the female to think again, and to think up a plan. the first step of the female's plan is to hope big sis calls for any reason (while indulging in more movies), coz she doesn't have airtime to call her herself. everyone has a bit of luck, and in this case, it has been good. big sis calls and she seizes her opportunity to ask for money for a hairdo in town, where they use enough oil. a meeting is set, and the plan can continue.

big sis takes her to a salon and leaves her with extra money, of course (the plan is working well). hair-days. they require money. and when u have natural hair, u pay more coz more oil is used. the guy in the salon here can't stop blowing his nose into a totally already-wet hanky, and his eyes are red from flu, and he's walking towards the female..., wait, he's the one doing her hair! alas, hair-days can include bearing a hairdo by a guy who needs medicine right now, but it's ok. it could be worse. she could be the one with the horrible flu.

as he tongs her hair, her thoughts go into random state. such random hair-day thoughts include things like;- 'i shouldn't have teased ashy about being rained on on tuesday. now it drizzled on me on my way here and the sick salon man had to blow dry my hair first. as if last nyt wasn't enough for my hurting scalp. maybe karma is real.' ;
'i'm leaving for the village tomorrow and a certain muganda has not kept his promise as usual. can't he ever do something different?' ;
'goodness, i'm going bak to campus in jan and i havent finished my report! will do it next week after this kuhingira in villa.' ;
'i wonder what rita would do if i called her tonight.' ;
'racheal is pretty quiet these days, and the rest of the roomies too, come to think of it' ;
'i have extra money, i'm not cookng tonight.!' ;
'song of a warrior is a cool title. have to remember to tell pea.' ;
'have to find a way to make my posts shorter. no wonder my first posts seem nicer. maybe that's why iwaya is quiet?'
the random thoughts are interrupted by the guy continuously puling her head and hitting the tonger thing on her scalp. either he is too sick, or does not realise that the thing he's using is first heated extra before being brought to her head. he must have missed class the day they taught that tonging is like hot-combing;-the tonger machine is HOT!
hair-days. if circumcision is a test of manliness, then those days they just didn't have things like hair-days to compare.

it is done, and i am looking extremely good. everyone in the salon is staring at me and i suppress the urge to reply with 'yes, it is my natural hair'. i see the other customers fighting the urge to say 'why didn't i tong my hair insted of plaiting?!'
i use the extra money to buy chips for the first time since the strike. everyone in the restaurant is staring at me and i want to reply with 'yes, girls who wear jeans, sneakers and shirts that look like rugby players' clothes do their hair nicely as well. and it's my natural hair by the way.'

hair-days. they make u proud to be female. you're so happy with (read relieved by) your new look, that u decide to blog about it. and as the internet guy gives u extra internet time, u can't help but decide u'd go through another hair-day again any day. except during exams.
ok kuhingira people, here i come!