My Virgin Hair

I had a mini-weekend get away with my hubby to San Diego for a business trip and since we had a formal event to attend, I decided to get a blowout at the Hyatt hotel spa. The stylist shampooed my hair and exclaimed, “Oh my God, are you virgin?!” It took me a moment of befuddled confusion before I realized she was referring to my hair. I replied, “Uh, yeah. I don’t color it or anything.”

“In the 3 1/2 years I’ve worked here, you are the first virgin head of hair to sit in my chair” she said in amazement. And then she called out to the other stylists, “Hey, I have a virgin here!” Within moments, I had a crowd of stylists huddled around my chair, touching and oohing and aaahing over my hair. It was a nice ego boost because although I kvetch about my genetic shortcomings: my oily skin, bowlegged calves, nearsightedness, crooked teeth and broad shoulders, I was blessed with the Park family hair. I didn’t get the stereotypical stick straight Asian hair. Mine is wavy with ridiculously thick strands the diameter of a fishing line. It’s got tons of body and shine and grows and grows like a weed and is about as hard to control. The only downside to this much abundance is finding hair bands strong enough to contain my hair without exploding or chopsticks or hair sticks to insert that don’t snap in half.

They couldn’t stop stroking it and exclaiming over how glossy and healthy it looked - no split ends, no dry spots, etc. Until that moment, I didn’t realize how rare it is to find a woman who doesn’t do anything at all to her hair. I literally just wash it, condition it and use a leave-in conditioner and let it air dry because I don’t have the time to blow it out since it takes a good hour with all of my hair. Yet, I wasn’t always so low maintenance and I wasn’t always a virgin. I’ve had highlights, color, straight perms - you name it.

But after I had my children, I simply didn’t have the time to fuss with my hair anymore. And contrary to popular belief, short hair is more work than long hair since there’s styling involved and no option for a bun or ponytail on bad hair days. So I let my short shag grow and grow and grow. I resigned myself to my curly hair type and stopped trying to change what I had and somewhere along the way, I achieved hair nirvana. Now that it’s healthy, it’s easy and effortless to manage and the frizz has disappeared. For the first time in my life, I’m happy with how my hair looks.

My hair stylist, Marina, had really beautiful, long curly hair and she was in her late 50’s. So I asked her what she used on her hair and she hesitated before she said. “You’re not going to believe me, you’re going to laugh.” I was curious, so I kept pressing her until she admitted, “Fab laundry detergent.”

I didn’t laugh. I was flabbergasted and could only stammer, “Why?!” She went on to explain that in her home country of Mexico, this is what they use in all the high end salons on their celebrity clients because it is such a powerful clarifying treatment. She said that it gets out everything in your hair, leaving it feeling like wire, but then you do a deep conditioning treatment afterwards and creates a clean slate for the conditioner so the hair is unbelievably shiny afterwards. I had to admit, she did have shiny, glossy hair with well-defined ringlet curls, so there’s no denying the results.

But I am skeptical about the safety of using laundry detergent on your scalp. But she swears she’s never seen an adverse reaction. She takes the powder detergent and mixes it in her hand and then coats the hair. There will be very little foam or bubbles, she warned. And rinse thoroughly. Then apply your favorite conditioner. She does this no more than twice a week. It doesn’t have to be Fab detergent, any will do, the cheaper the better. So now I’m very curious to give this a go. If any hair of head can survive ill treatment, it’s mine. So maybe I’ll be the human guinea pig on this one and report back later.