THE ELEVENTH AVATAR: Love it? Dove it.

It’s a beautiful February morning. There is no office today. Yay! I can lie in bed all I want and soak in the serenity of the February spring interrupted only by the calls of the early morning birds and the howling dog from the vacant plot behind my house. But I can’t lie in bed. It irritates me. It’s not the bed, it’s not the pillow. Problem is my hair. It is dry almost like grass drying on bare fields after harvest in the sun. To me, nothing can be more irritating than dry hair grating on the pillow early in the morning. I can even compare it to the annoying sound my made by the kitchen grater when carrots are grated on it. It’s just that bad. Aaarrrrgh.

I possibly cannot love my hair. I am embarrassed by it. I have been so embarrassed by it that I have tried every recipe in the book, followed every single tip by friends, relatives, neighbour aunty, why even the woman who brings us fresh greens - on making the hair soft and shiny! Seriously my dear Dove, you tell me how someone with hay like hair will ever feel like playing with it? That is impossible. That I suppose is reserved for girls with awesome soft, manageable, huggable hair.

But Dove? Dove. Dovvvvve! The only thing I haven’t tried yet. Don’t know why I didn’t consider it so far. But not today. There’s Dove on the shelf today. Something I picked up on a whim from the supermarket yesterday. I have to shake off feeling bad about my hair early in the morning. Let’s do this babe, I tell myself. The hair awaits its new fate. Or would it be luck? Dove Hair Therapy Intense Repair Shampoo is soon followed by Dove Hair Therapy Intense Repair Conditioner. This is the last experiment I tell my hair rather loudly. What I didn’t know then was that it sure was to be the last experiment I would do on my hair.

IT WORKED! It actually worked. After drying and setting, when I checked in the mirror I saw what I wanted to see. I saw what I have always dreamt to see. Lustrous, smooth and shiny hair that I can toss and run my hands through! Mom is not going to believe this. May be she will make me carrot halwa today (Yeah, I will have to put up with that carrot-on-grater noise).

I can’t resist resting my head on the pillow to check the end result. I toss, I turn. But there’s no grating noise. I double check. Yes, there’s no grating sound.

Since that day, I don’t shampoo my hair anymore.

I Dove it.

I don’t condition it anymore.

I Dove it.

Dove. That’s my new love. So if you love your hair too, you should
JUST DOVE IT.

PS: Now I can do all that the girls in this Dove commercial do. Anytime. All the time.