The Braid -Tale

School days remains etched in most of the people’s mind for assorted reasons. Assembly prayers, recess bells, bunch of friends, hawk eyed teachers, annual sports day, missing homework and the endless list continues. Apart from all other sweet n sour memories, my childhood tales are incomplete without the mention of my ‘heavily oiled-tightly braided’ look accessorized with two strands of colorful ribbons. I still remember how everyday my mother tied my hair in two braids tightly after applying generous amount of coconut oil. In those days, I detested that smell of coconut oil to the core and hated it more when my grandmother caught hold of me for weekly head wash.  She boiled shikakai, reetha and many more so called ‘nutritious for hair’ ingredients and washed my hair with that concoction. Gosh…I really wished for magical disappearance of Sunday from the calendar so many times.  But, somewhere inside I was even proud of my lovely hair and relished the jealous eyes of my class mates.

Coutesy: Google Images

Tying a perfect braid is no child’s play. Its foremost feature has to be healthy hair without any split ends. Dodging the split ends is always a mammoth task. Balanced diet, proper care and nourishment and appropriate can save the hair from getting damaged to certain extent. So, nice symmetric braid is possible only with healthy hair without any spilt ends.

Time moved on to college days and two braids disappeared to give chance to stylish hairstyles. Mother and grandmother have to surrender to the independent teenager who vehemently opposed any application of any healthy or nutritious items to her hair. As a result once healthy, voluminous, shiny hair had to face the brunt of this neglect gradually.

After that, many years flew in between. Now, I am a mother of a hyper active toddler whose primary motto in life is not to let her mother park her butt for a minute. After running around the house with messy cuckoo’s nest hair on my crown for many days, 

Coutesy: Google Images

I discovered the utility of braids once again. Once made neatly, you can even sleep with them so at least you can look bare minimum presentable in front of whole world even when you do not remember to comb your hair for long. Another feature is that your toddler cannot dishevel your hair by merely pulling out a single hair clip from your scalp. So, I went back to my braided look but this time not two just one. But the task is more difficult this time. Tying braid to a bunch of already damaged hair with no time to pamper self with any oil massage or herbal wash became quite challenging for me. Still I managed to bring out a decent braid from the reminiscent tresses of my scalp.

My toddler observed me intently throughout the whole procedure. She seemed quite happy with the end result. She took the long braid and started playing with it. Suddenly she shouted…ouwwww, oouuuwww. I turned back to realize that she was rubbing my braid to her cheeks and the SPLIT ENDS hurt her. She pushed back my hair and shouted “Jhaooooo, Jahooooo”. She calls a broom ‘Jhaooo’ in her accent. I was heartbroken and aghast. My mane-my pride was crushed into pieces.

Here came my rescuer when I saw this advertisement. 

Dove has the perfect solution to keep your hair beautiful till the ends! The Dove Split End Rescue Shampoo is a part of the Dove Damage Solutions range, specially formulated to help bring split-ends together. It has fiber actives that work on the deepest level of your hair, to give you up to 4x lesser split-ends*.

I bought it with a determination to fight against the damaged hair with this marvelous weapon by Dove. After using it for almost a month, noticeable changes appeared in my hair. Split ends were visibly less and the healthy look sneaked from all parts of my hair.

Even HD (Hubby dear) noticed the change and my new found confidence with my braided look when I teamed up this loosely tied side braided hairstyle with a chiffon saree for a party invite. With an intense stare he complimented me and I was in seventh heaven. But the best was yet to come. My li’l daughter lovingly touched my braid and said “Mamma….Jhaoooo nahin…pilky pilky”. She meant now it does not look like a broom but silky & smooth. I jumped with happiness from seventh heaven to cloud nine. Thank You Dove.