(Seemingly) Stoned people love my hair

A little back story first. So, a couple of weeks ago I was hanging out in a bar in the Lower East Side with some folks. I'd been wearing my hair au natural for a while now. The curls are their springiest directly after a washing. This particular day I had combed out my hair in the morning with the intention of washing it to get it back to its plump spiral curls phase, but over the course of doing random errands in the morning I realized that if I wash my hair when I was about to, it wouldn't dry by the time I was going out to meet people and I'd end up looking like Lionel Ritchie with my hair being wet and curly, yet flat against my head.

So I while in the bathroom trying to figure out whether to braid it or sweep it up into a bun I comb it out again and see that it's not all that bad. It's still got enough "curl" in it so that it looks more like a messy fro-ish, Diana Ross type thing going on, so I figure, "Eh, fuck it," and leave the house like that and wash it when I get home or the morning after.

Now I was sitting and talking to some folks when a dude walks up to us. He was the usual type you see down there. Tall, thin, in skinny pants, with a leather jacket and a scarf around his neck. I thought maybe he knew someone in our group or was coming to ask us something when I notice he stops right in front of me and says, "Wow...do you mind if I touch your hair?"

I turned to look up at the guy because I thought I'd heard him wrong. "What's that?" I asked. He went on to say, "It's soooo cool. How do you get it to do that?"

"Er, it's just natural like this. All I did was comb it out..."

"Wow, it's just like, like Kimya Dawson's. Do you mind if I touch it?"

I guess I was in a good mood and it didn't hurt that the guy wasn't too hard on the eyes. I guess I'm kind of laid back like that. I thought it was no skin off my back to humor the guy and said sure. I figured he just wanted to run his fingers through it (ha, good luck) or something, but instead he total gets both hands in it and ruffles it. And he's totally loving it.

"This is sooo cool. You need to just keep it like this all the time."

I laugh along and he goes on his way, but for the rest of the evening each time he passed by me he'd give my hair a good fluffing and it was so surreal I couldn't help but laugh because he'd say things like "You really shouldn't like, try to tame it or anything. Just let it go wild." At one point he even had his arms around me and had his hands all up in my hair and I just laughed and laughed.

It was all very amusing. I tell this story because I don't know if he was stoned, but if it's not that he really loves Kimya Dawson's hair, it's probably likely something was going on that made poofy hair so amusing to him.

So fast forward to tonight at the Bowery Ballroom. I was there to see Tokyo Police Club. Alex was there, Kelly couldn't make it (laaaaaaaaaammme). Smoosh was opening. Smoosh stood behind us for the Static Jacks (who put on a good set), and Alex and I tried to help them decipher Asya's astrological signs pendant. Smoosh was adorable and talented as ever (this must be said whenever I mention Smoosh: OMG MINI BASSIST SO DAMN CUTE) and played a great set and did their sweet cover of Bloc Party's "This Modern Love" again.

Anyhow, before we go on, we all know what today is, right? That's right 420. And at intervals during the show it smelled like someone was getting their party on. So today I'd managed to have my big mass of curls going on. It's just big with piles of and piles of black curls just everywhere. I say all this because right before Tokyo Police Club were to come on stage, the crowds pressed in a bit more and people were squeezing in to try and get a better spot. Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me uncomfortably close. Then, a presence in my hair.

I turned around sharply to see some random tiny blonde chick with a beer in her left hand slowly massaging my hair with her right hand. She was shorter than me so she was actually reaching up to do this. She had an odd look on her face as if she was mesmerized by my hair, swaying slightly. I didn't stop her but instead slowly turned to look over to Alex with a look on my face that was pure "What. The. FUCK?"

I stood there awkwardly for a few second staring at Alex in shock until she stopped as suddenly has she had started and continued on her way. I don't know about what was exactly going on in the head of the dude at the bar, but this chick? She had to be stoned or drunk or something. It was utterly ridiculous.

Oh, and Tokyo Police Club was flippin' awesome of course. Too bad Graham was over in the corner and I couldn't see him too well =(, but the songs are so much fun to dance and sing along to. If the show on Tuesday wasn't sold out I would've been tempted to go again.