A Long Story Short

Once upon a time, several decades ago, a little girl lived on the island of Maui.  Oh how she loved living on that island, it was her own personal paradise.  Her mommy took her to the beach every day, often twice a day.  Once in the morning to swim, then the whole family walked the beach a block from her home in the evenings.

It truly was a piece of heaven for this little girl.  There was only one problem, though.  She didn't fit in.  You see, she was a haole, a Mainlander, a minority.  She wanted so much to be kama'aina, native.  Now her birth certificate said she was Hawai'ian born, but short, golden hair and blue eyes just made her stand out as not belonging among all the beautiful kama'aina keiki (children).  What she wanted more than anything was to have the beautiful tan and long, gorgeous dark hair that her friends and classmates had.

One day while at recess on the playground at the old Kihei School, one of the little girl's haole friends made a suggestion.  She too felt out of place in this island paradise for she was a blue-eyed tow-head girl who felt even more out of place.  "Angel" suggested to the first little girl that the two of them could become just like their kama'aina friends by doing something very simple:  if they spent all of their time out of the sun, under the Banyan tree, both their hair and skin would darken and they would fit in with everyone else.  The first little girl was very willing to believe her friend so they spent many days under the shade of the banyan tree, hoping to fit in.

Alas, it didn't work.  *wry chuckle*

When the first little girl left her island paradise the end of that school year for the frozen potato fields of southeastern Idaho, she was blessed with a  gorgeous Hawai'ian base tan, but her hair was still that golden brown.  And would stay that way through out her life--though fiery highlights of red showed up as she got older.


As the years passed and the girl grew up, she realized the fallacy of Angel's idea of spending time under the banyan tree to turn their hair dark.  She learned to love the color of her hair though she never quite gave up on having the long, flowing locks of kama'aina women and girls.  She tried growing it out multiple times but it always stopped at a particular spot--or someone talked her into cutting it.

About four years ago, she decided to try again--only this time experiment with a daily supplement of folic acid because she had heard folic acid helped hair grow.  Well, either by coincidence or design, her hair started to grow.  And grow.  And grow.

Wailea Sunset, 2008

Until where it is today...  She may not have the dark kama'aina hair she wished for so long ago, BUT she absolutely LOVES the reddish brown color she was born with.

Wind and chill at 9,000 feet

Only now, she wonders if it's too long!!!!