Dolor de Cabeza

Have you ever had a severe headache for 36 straight hours, an unrelenting pain that medicine did not alleviate? If you answered yes, did this same headache drive you nuts to the point where you almost lost sensation in your scalp? And now one final question…was this headache self-imposed?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you have almost definitely had cornrows (braided hair that looks like corn rows; trenzas en español) at one point in your life. And these same cornrows were probably a bit too tight. And your name could be Avi Richman. Yes, worldwide fans of www.avirichman.com, your favorite author got his hair braided into cornrows on last Thursday morning and they were a bit too tight.

During the two hour braiding session with a friend of a friend, I felt no pain and carried on a nice conversation. Fyi…I actually have a high tolerance for pain in the scalp area meaning that you could pull my hair as hard as you wish and it does not bother me (pulling hair as hard as possible is exactly what happens in a braiding session for those interested to know this little cookie of information). So I left my braiding session with a huge grin that can only come from doing something completely against the norm, found my friends eating breakfast, and showed off the cornrows in all their glory.

We left for our road trip to the northern part of Nicaragua an hour later and then I began to become uncomfortable. Those little rubberbands pulling out my hair and scalp were starting to annoy me. They were too tight! Another few hours passed and the annoyance was elevated to the point where alcohol was needed to deaden the pain. Alcohol did not even work and I went to sleep that night, hoodie protecting the braids, expecting a less painful tomorrow. Woke up and there was less pain but the pain remained.

So finally on Friday night around 9pm, only 36 hours after receiving my new look,  I could no longer tolerate the rows. I was tugging at the braids with hands, fingers, knives, and scissors trying to release the pressure. And oh it felt good when I finally was able to rid myself of the rows. You know the feeling after you have been ice skating for a long time and then you take off the skates….remember how good that feels on your feet….well multiply that by ten and imagine how good it felt for my head.

In conclusion, cornrows one time, good times, cornrows twice, one time too many.