Tales from the Reluctant Dance Mother

Beyond Chinese New Year, last weekend also brought about the dreaded beginning of dance season. That means every weekend from now until the end of March we have some sort of dance event. Competition, convention, audition, you name it, La Nina will be there. And by default so will I with my lovely Dream Duffle.

We kicked off the mayhem with a dress rehearsal on Saturday night. That meant hair, make-up, costume changes, the whole thing designed to be "practice." Now, my theory has always been the dress rehearsals are more for me than my dancer. She practices twice a week, she doesn't need practice. Me, on the other hand, I need practice. I played soccer as a kid.

Here's why I need practice, one of La Nina's two competition costumes has 6 pieces, not counting earrings and shoes. The odds of losing a piece are stacked against us with crowded dressing rooms, fast turns and an over-excited, nearly 8 year old tossing arm bands like frisbees. But I disgress, really this is a story about hair. Because you see, I must curl hair this season, not once, but for two different numbers. Trust me, I'd rather face a roomful of inquisitive 8 year-olds than La Nina's lovely hair armed with only hot rollers and a curling iron.

So, there I was Saturday after coaching the Magster's soccer game trying to muster the energy to curl La Nina's hair. One thing I've learned from past curling defeats is hair products are my friend. So I grabbed a bottle of mousse from the cupboard, sprayed into my hand and applied it liberally to La Nina shining black hair. After it was in her hair, I realized the mousse seemed a little off. It was thick. It didn't blend into her hair well. In fact, it looked a little blue. But no worries. I had to get the hot rollers in, so I started rolling her hair, but something wasn't right. Her hair felt stiff. It would almost pop right off of the hot roller. I figured the mousse was just old.

After I got her hair rolled, the Magster came in for me to roll her hair. (Because if I do hair once, I do it twice...just the rule of thumb.) I reached for the mousse again, but decided I should read the label. Shock of all shocks. I did not grab mousse after all. It was shaving cream. I had put a ton of shaving cream into La Nina's hair, brushed it in and hot rolled the whole mess. And worse yet, I had to have her Livermore with curly hair within the hour. What was a reluctant dance mother to do?

I decided to go with it. Nothing else really works on her hair, why not give the shaving cream a test run? I had nothing to lose. It wasn't like her hair was going to stay curly no matter what I did. Expectations are low for me to get Asian hair curled. Even the studio director gave me a "Do your best" pep talk. But you know what, it worked. Her hair curled as well as it ever has and it actually held. Of course, it did smell a bit odd and sort of crackled when I touched it, but it was curly and that was the requirement, so off to dance we went.

As the night wore on (did I mention we were there nearly 4 hours?), her hair did fade, but no worse than usual. It completely lost it's silky feel and frankly, it was a little sticky when she sweat, but otherwise, it worked sort of. Of course, the real problem came trying to wash it out. We lathered rinse and repeated for more than one day, but I think we're good now. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this method for curling hair, but it got us through the dress rehearsal. One down, four to go.

Footnote: Every dance season there's enough material to fill a book. Nutty stage mothers, dressing mishaps, hair disasters...you name it, it happens backstage at this competitions. This year, I'll make sure to tell the "Tales".