With Patience Bare

I think that one of the gifts I have been blessed with in my life is patience. But I find at times that even with the degree of patience I have been blessed with there is always something that will try my patience. This trying will either strengthen my patience making it stronger for the next thing to come along and try it even more. Or I will allow myself to become frustrated and possibly get to the point of giving up for a time before coming back to it again.

Styling my hair tries my patience. I know! Of ALL the things in this world something so simple as styling hair becomes really frustrating for me and I, more than not, give up. It has been a life-long struggle. I blame it on having three brothers, which by default influenced me to be a tom-boy. And when a girl is a tom-boy styling hair is the last thing on their list of things they want to try. Therefore, I never learned how to do anything with my hair.

But as I have somewhat grown out of the tom-boy stage and began to act and dress more like a young lady doing my hair has become a challenge in which I hope to conquer someday.

Recently I was taught how to style my hair in a certain way that I have been wanting to learn for sometime now. This style includes scrunching my hair to create a wavey/curly look and then putting it half-way up in a messy bob. I attempted this on my own for the first time today.

Finally knowing how to style my hair like this I was excited and anxious to try. To my disappointment my hair did not scrunch up as much as I would have liked it to. It seemed like no difference was made no matter how much mousse I put in my hair. I thought maybe it would curl up once I blow dried it. Not having the clips needed to blow dry it properly to maximize the curl I did the best I could, but again, the results weren't as expected. I trudged on anyway and began bobby-pinning my hair up, pulling it back, and then creating the messy bob. The results were pathetic. Nothing was staying in, there was barely any curl and it was lopsided. I was going on two hours by that time. I took it all out and started again. Still no success. Having to leave for an appointment I quickly threw it back in a clip and left with a bit of frustration and feeling of defeat inside of me.

I decided that I was going to wait for another day to try it; it wasn't worth it for me to try a third attempt today. I went to my appointment, came home, and ate. Maybe it was the food, but I felt a new sense of determination to try again. I approached it with a heart at peace and ready to carefully take one step at a time with an increase in patience.

"One step at a time. One bobby-pin at a time" were my thoughts as I stepped up to the bathroom counter for another go.

With this added patience and determination the results were a lot more pleasing and acceptable. It is not perfect or not as good as I would like it to be, but being my first time and third attempt I was satisfied well enough. I was even successful at adding my beautiful butterfly clips without messing everything else up in the process. Quite the accomplishment if you ask me. I am grateful for the opportunity of being taught how to do this new hair style; it is number six on my list of things I know how to do with my hair now! And I am grateful for whoever said, "When at first you don't succeed, try try again."