Afro Curlers

Homemade stuff comes in handy a lot but sometimes they’re the wrong way to go. You would think having an afro is awesome and all, but only on Halloween. Having an afro causes problems like getting brushes stuck in your hair or not being able to do anything with it. Don’t believe me? Well maybe this will change your mind.

It was 9 o’clock at night on July 3rd, and Maddie (my cousin) and I had nothing to do. Maddie had just stepped out of the shower and flopped on her bed in her pajama’s.

“I have an idea! Let’s put in hair curlers!” Maddie exclaimed standing up quite suddenly. I could tell by her face that she thought she was a genius.

“That would be a great idea…” I started to say, at this her smile spread even wider. “If you had any curlers.” I reasoned.

The smile left her face. I watched as she scrunched up her nose and bit her lip, her general thinking face. Again her features lit up. “How about homemade curlers!” Maddie practically shouted.

“You know how to make hair curlers?” I asked flabbergasted. My mom was a hair dresser and I didn’t even know how to do that!

“No, no!” she scolded, “But my little friend does!” Maddie pulled her IPod Touch out of her pocket. She struck the YouTube icon and flopped on the bed next to me.

After we watched the video, we assembled all the supplies: Strips of an old t-shirt, and tissue paper.  For the old t-shirt, we used her old gym shirt. Looking back I can say that, that was an awful idea. The very shirt that Madison Huesboe had sweat in all year for gym, was going into our hair.

To get tissue paper we had to climb down to the basement, and find some. We grabbed some red tissue paper and some white.

Back in Maddie’s bedroom, we cut strips of each article. We took the tissue paper and rolled it around the t-shirt strips. I then took them and applied them to our hair, tying the “curlers” at the end.

“Now we just have to sleep in them.” Maddie informed me as I finished tying the last of the curlers. Anxious to see how it would work, We went to bed right away.

The next morning

I woke up to numerous curlers on the floor, and several in the bed.

“Maddie! Wake up!” yelled in to her ear, “Its morning. Let’s see how our curls turned out!”

glanced toward the shafts of sunlight coming out of the window her eyes opened wide. She bounced off her bed and over to her mirror. We both started pulling out our curlers.

5 minutes later…

We starred at the mirror in disbelief. Our hair was terrible. The pieces that had fallen were hanging down straight, and the pieces in the curlers, were sticking straight up. We looked like clowns on a bad hair day.

“What are we going to do?” Maddie asked after a couple minutes of silence, “It’s the fourth of July, we’re going to be seeing everyone, and our hair are in afro’s!” She was freaking out. To Maddie, appearances were everything. If a hair was out of place, it took her ten minutes to fix it to her likings. This was her worst nightmare.

“Maddie, calm down.” I said trying to soothe her, “We can just…” I racked my brain for something, “Just straighten our hair!” I gave myself a mental pat on the back.

As the words sank in, Maddie’s whole body began to loosen up. First her shoulders slumped, then her eyes drooped. “That’s a good idea. We’ll just do that.” She grabbed her straightener out of the closet and plugged it in. It took us a while to do it, but we got it done.

At the breakfast table, my Uncle asked, “How did your curls turn out?” Maddie’s eyes immediately narrowed, and I let out a chuckle.

“They didn’t really work.”I told him. It was hard to conceal our smirks.