I Don't Brush my Hair

About 15 months ago, I broke my brush. It was a junk brush, and I knew I had a good brush at home. You know, one of those ouch-less ones with a contoured handle to fit your palm. Anyway, I didn't want to buy another when I knew I had this other one, and I am not super keen on using other people's brushes. Combs maybe, but brush, no. So after years of brushing my long strands into ruler-straight submission, I was without my weapon, the Dictator, I was helpless against the mischief my hair could accomplish.
In an attempt to keep it, managable, I finger combed through it and threw it in a loose braid before bed.
To my surprise, the three days before I could get home to the protection of my brush, my hair turned into this beautiful thing, full of character and body. I got more compliments the days I had no brush, than ever before. My hair had previously hung limp down my back, it was hair that had to be convinced, coerced, and glued in place to hold a curl. Now it possessed bounce and shape I had never imagined possible.
So, now, rather than trying to reconquer my tresses, I mostly let it be. Spot brushing it, you know, like spot washing a floor? If there is an extra tangled area, I brush it out, otherwise I finger out the little knots and such. Sometimes a full brushing cannot be avoided, any event involving a great deal of wind, like snowboarding, riding, convertables, boating, usually requires the wind knots to be carefully combed out. If I don't tie my hair before swimming, it will probably need to be brushed out. No brushing is not a hard and fast rule, rather more like a guideline. And the longer it has been free from the brushes dictation, the more frequently my hair needs to be reminded that it's freedom depends on appropriate behaviour. But thats ok, it beats having lifeless locks. And my hair still goes for months at a time without a complete brush out, and sometimes weeks without the need of a spot brush.
My mother calls my hair a 'mane', har-de-har. And my grandma after seeing my new, barely tamed, couffure, laughed when she learned my scheme. Some ask if it is sanitary, (While frequency of washing is an entirely different subject, I still wash my hair! Jeeze) others ask if it is healthy for my scalp. (I just pay more attention to my scalp when washing) And yes, I still have bad hair days, thats what hats and hairbands are for.
But if it's terribly important, those are the days I pull out the Dictator, to revel briefly in the memory if it's supremacy.