Also, I suspect that stylists for black hair are pretty rare in Des Moines.

YES! And you know, girl was busy training for the Olympics. I will say I find her extremely charming and adorable.

Tom, that's awesome!

The term Jewish hair will never not confuse me, as long as black people can, you know, be Jewish. But I guess if Jewish people are making the equivalence...

Yeah, it pretty much means "the type of hair that a lot of Jewish people have, and which is the focus of much angst and discussion within many Jewish communities," even though not all Jews have that sort of hair, and not all people with that sort of hair are Jewish. But it's got a kind of social and emotional relevance among Jews that I haven't seen in many other communities. It's not the same thing as the relevance that black hair has, but hair within a lot of mostly-white Jewish communities has meaning that hair doesn't have within most other mostly-white communities that I've seen.

I hate garbage disposals. I have one now, and I avoid it/fear it. Like javachik, I compost as much as I can, so it's not a huge issue.

Speaking of composting, smonster check this out! [link]

I think we're going to do this at The Compound. Now we'll be able to compost EVERYTHING.

Our pub quiz team name tonight is “7 Minutes of Terror”.

Love. It.

I'm trying to find a decent article that talks about the culture of Jewish hair without comparing it to black hair. It seems like there were a whole bunch of articles written a few years ago by Jewish women who saw "Good Hair" and thought, "Hey, we've got something to talk about, too," and those ones are kind of dominating the google results. This one is sort of what I'm looking for, but not quite. [link]

Check it: I have a lot of extended family in Des Moines. I bet I could have hooked her up.

I think we're going to do this at The Compound. Now we'll be able to compost EVERYTHING.

Oh my god, I am JEALOUS. You won't believe how I've backslid environmentally. ::hangs head in shame::

And you know, girl was busy training for the Olympics. I will say I find her extremely charming and adorable.

Yep. Some of the guards/instructors argue/tease over their hair. One has a short afro she sometimes does in twists or a really charming snood, another wears it much like Gabby (though if she's straight from a meet, she also often does a snood) and the other braids in various configs. All are competitive swimmers, and they debate whose hair is easiest to cope with having a life in the water. Near as I can tell, they always reach a draw. Braids feel poky in a cap, the 'fro doesn't like to compress and then doesn't uncompress easily, staightened frizzes out, but easy to pull back in desperation... They all agree that the other guard, a mixed-race woman with just naturally wavy hair, has the easiest hair. But she's got hair that you could put in a windtunnel full of pinesap and it would still turn out ok. She's uncommonly gifted with hair not affected by a swimming life.

I'm not ashamed to say that I love my garbage disposal. And, knock wood, it's never caused me any issues in 4 years.

But it's got a kind of social and emotional relevance among Jews that I haven't seen in many other communities

Are Jews in the US that different from British Jews? Because they just had straight hair at my mostly Jewish school. Same with the Jewish friends I made in Canada. The white people I know who had been down that stressful hair-straightening path were all non-Jews.

So seeing it treated like a pan-Jewish issue? Eye opening. Do you have the concomitant good hair issues where you're judged as militant if you wear your hair as is? Or you're a traitor if you do alter it? Like us?