The Hairy Details

I don’t switch up my hair too often. Instead, my hair goes through phases. In elementary school, I had my mom braid my hair into pigtails everyday. In third grade my mom left for a trip, leaving my dad as chief braider in command. Long story short, the braid didn’t turn out so I was forced to wear my hair down for the week. The kids in my class had grown so accustom to my daily braids that when I arrived at school with my long tresses flowing free, I heard a boy in my class whisper to my friend, “is that a visitor?” as he pointed in my direction. Just like every elementary aged kid, I was curious and weird. My new hair was like never ending roll play, I was no longer “Mallory with pigtails and braces” I was the “new girl” and I wanted to capitalize on it. Once my mom returned from her trip, I seized to meander into her bathroom in the morning for my braids. Instead, I spiced up my new look by placing two clips on either side of my part as I let the rest of my hair fly free. It was that style that became my new signature until eighth grade. Once high school hit, I switched up my look once again. I turned to the hot tools, hoping to tame my uncontrollable waves with a blow dryer and straighter. I sizzled my hair every day until the loads of college work put my hair on the back burner. By junior year, I went abroad to Italy and then to Africa. I regretfully chopped off my long hair thinking it would be easier to manage while I was away without tools. After much travel, I went through an all-natural, “granola” stage where I didn’t want to process my hair in an unnatural way. Now that I have graduated, I’ve thought a lot about changing my hair to mark this new phase of my life. Instead of sticking to a single, particular style, however, I want to make this hair phase more eclectic. I regularly let my hair fall as it may, but I’ve also re-introduced my blow dryer and curling iron into the mix. I want to experiment with multiple styles instead of creating a new phase that will come and inevitably go, again. As I start experimenting, I can’t help but want to try the middle-part. Below are some looks that I hope to try as I embark on breaking my stylized habit…

I love the middle-part and voluminous waves 

Some middle-part, up-do inspiration...