Tammie texted me, “When are you having your hair permed?”

I responded, “My appointment is in half an hour.”

My daughter messaged, “I’ll talk to you later, when you’re a curly-haired lamb.” I chuckled. Tammie liked to compare me to a lamb with curly fleece whenever I get a perm.

 Before leaving the house, I peeked into a mirror. What I saw fully displayed what I hate about my hair. Baby-fine strands were lying limp, flat against the forehead, sticking to sweat-beaded skin. I grumbled, “I hate my hair right before a perm, especially when the weather is hot and humid! It’s hard to believe that just yesterday, I washed, moussed, and set my hair.”

At the appointed time, Lisa, my hairdresser, greeted me cheerfully as she ushered me into her salon chair. Looking at our reflections in the mirror, I wanly smiled and admitted, “Not feeling good because you’re having bad hair day is a real thing. For the last two weeks, I’ve been counting the days till my perm. I feel messy and unattractive.”

Lisa professionally examined my flat tresses and commented, “Your hair is thick and healthy, but very fine and has very little body. The ends of your hair show that you had a perm four months ago.”

Shrugging, I said, “I’ve had my hair cut three times since the last perm. I thought all of it was gone. But it doesn’t matter, because today I’m having another perm!” With a chuckle, I confessed, “I like feeling like a curly-haired lamb.”

Expertly wrapping sections of my hair onto permanent rods, Lisa asked, “Aren’t you and Tammie leaving for an Alaskan cruise soon?”

I eagerly responded, “The cruise is in two weeks. I enjoy traveling with Tammie, so I’m looking forward to it.” With all my hair wrapped around the curler rods, Lisa applied the permanent solution. The next step was waiting for nearly half an hour before the hair wrapped curler rods were rinsed and the second solution applied to my hair.

During the wait time, I thought about the cruise, hoping I wouldn’t ruin our fun by being motion sick on the ship. To prevent this, Tammie made sure our cabin was in the middle of the ship, plus I’d asked my doctor for Scopolamine patches.

Why would a person who suffers motion sickness go on a cruise? For me the answer was easy. I want to do normal, fun activities. Once, while on vacation with my daughter, we stayed at a hotel with a water park. I enjoyed floating on the lazy river. Then Tammie suggested, “We should do the water slide.” I glanced up. The entrance to the slide was towering four stories above. Like a lamb being led to slaughter, I meekly agreed, “Okay.”

Stepping into the open maw of the slide was like stepping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet. After free falling for a thousand feet and for ten minutes, the dark tunnel swirled me around many times and back upwards before another ten-minute free fall. This happened repeatedly for what felt like the next sixty minutes. Finally, the tunnel spit me out into a pool. I was surprised I still had my innertube. I thought I’d lost it at the top. Tammie approached me, her eyes filled with concern, “Mom! Are you alright? You don’t look well!”

I belched loudly, and whispered, “I feel like I was flushed down a toilet from the top of New York’s Empire State building.” Leaning on my daughter, I staggered back to our room.

Lisa had set a timer for how long the perm solution stayed in my hair. When it buzzed, she returned to rinse my hair and apply a bottle of curl stabilizer. When she finished drying and styling my hair, I asked Lisa to take a picture of me so Tammie could see my perm was done. My daughter’s response to the picture we sent her was immediate. She wrote, “My sweet little Mommy lamb. I’m looking forward to our Alaskan cruise adventure. I hope the precautions we’re taking keeps you feeling well!”