How Kendra Changed My Life (and Answer Me This)

Once in a very great while, someone touches

 your life in a deeply profound and unique way 

and you know that things will never be the same again.  

When it happens, the effect is immediate and intense, 

yet its impact is felt ad infinitum - like ripples in a pond - 

throughout your life for many years to come.  

This has happened to me.  The someone was Kendra.  My life has been drastically changed by her recommendation of the Tangle Teezer Original Professional Salon Elite Detangling Hair Brush (how's that for an over-the-top product name...)  My four-year-old Ruth, full of dramatic flare even when she's not having her hair brushed, has been contacted by Hollywood casting agencies for the part of the Keening Irish Woman once they heard tell of the spectacle she's capable of at hair-brushing time.  Weeping, wailing, screaming, howling, violent thrashing, are words that only begin to scratch the surface of what it is to witness Ruth having her hair brushed.  She doesn't even have that many tangles.  She's not even my curly girl.  She just has what I have termed DTSS - Diva Tender Scalp Syndrome - intensified by a tendency to hyperventilate at the mention of the word hairbrush.

Could an expensive plastic hairbrush really change all this??  I am always skeptical of things that promise to take the pain and suffering out of activities that by their very nature imply pain and suffering, such as chin-ups and brushing Ruth's hair.  I approached this hairbrush with my typical wariness, but Kendra's endorsement was too much to ignore.  I bought the brush.  

Oh. my. goodness.  Please consider the transformation that hair-brushing time has undergone as a result of this hairbrush...

Ruth before the Tangle Teezer Original Professional Salon Elite Detangling Hair Brush:

The Scream, Edvard Munch

Ruth after the Tangle Teezer Original Professional Salon Elite Detangling Hair Brush:

Girl Styling Her Hair, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Or Ruth on a really good day after the Tangle Teezer Original Professional Salon Elite Detangling Hair Brush:

Without subjecting you to a full account of how horrible it used to be, allow me to at least say, it was horrible.  Now, Ruthie is practically begging me to brush her hair.  Well, no... not really.  But she's no longer sending the neighbors running in terror with her blood-curdling screams when I mention that "it's time."  Brushing her hair is actually a pleasure now.  (And it works on Clare-of-the-Curly-Hair too.)  Thank you, Kendra.  Thank you.  

And to wrap things up...

When she's not recommending life-changing hair care products, Kendra is asking questions.  This week she wants to know:

1. What’s something you've won and how did you win it?

I don't usually win things - neither because I have mad skills and deserve it, nor out of sheer luck.  I'm just not the winning type.  I dug deep to find one thing that I won... a high school history award...  not too big a deal, though it's nice to know that at one time I was appreciated for my brains.  My intelligence is somewhat lost on my children...

 2. Do you save old greeting cards and letters, or throw them all away? Why?

I don't.  I throw almost all papers away.  Birthday cards, Christmas cards, Congrats on your new baby cards - in the garbage.  Our home is already fairly cluttered with useful things, there is hardly a good place for sentimental things.  I will long remember how much our new babies, etc... were loved without needing to re-read the store-bought greeting cards. Special love notes from my husband and handmade cards from my children (like the one illustrating my "big stumik" when I went to the hospital to have James) I do save.  But for the most part, I'm kind of heartless when it comes to getting rid of cards and letters.  It's not personal, it's what needs to be done.

3. When you’re at home, do you wear shoes, socks, slippers, or go barefoot?
I don't particularly care for bare feet.  I usually wear socks.  And since I live in a part of the country where the average temperature from November to April this past year was 29.7 degrees  it's not unusual to see me wear slippers in winter.  It's my hope that I'll be wearing some cozy handmade crochet slippers by next winter, but I haven't started on that yet.  

4. Who’s the most famous person you have ever met? 

Because my mother worked for a classical music radio station when I was growing up, we often got backstage time at great concerts and events.  In the world of classical music and public radio, I have met cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinists Midori and Joshua Bell, and entertainer Garrison Keillor.  When I was in high school, my Girl Scout troop took a trip to New York City and we saw David Hasselhoff at a pay phone (remember those??)  

One of the down sides of being non-sentimental is that I couldn't find any of the photographic evidence to support these famous encounters.  They existed at one time, but I may have thrown them out thinking, "the memory is enough..."  

5. What has been your best work of art?
I'm always doing artsy things, but nothing ever too spectacular.  Can't think of the "best" right now.  I guess (like Kendra) my kids... and even then, I can't take full credit ;)

6.  What’s your strongest sense?

Smell.  Hands down.  I have very strong scent-related memories and I can smell faint wiffs of things that no-one else notices.  I also like some weird smells that most other people don't care for... like skunks, damp basements, and musty attics.  I don't know where I get that, but it's just one of those things. 

So now you know :)