Why didn't you guys tell me about this?!

Blogger friends, I have an announcement: I have discovered bobby pins.

They're fantastic. I've really started experimenting with them over the past few weeks. Last night when I discovered yet another I-don't-have-to-worry-about-shitty-hair-in-pictures hairstyle thanks to those tiny pieces of metal magic, I wondered: How did I not know about these before?

I've had a similar awakening with eye shadow. I don't do anything fancy, but where I used to be convinced I looked like a clown if I ever put it on myself (it was usually fine if someone else did it), I've finally come around. All it took was seeing a friend's subtle, neutral lids to get me to find a look myself.

So many of my girlfriends are great with this kind of thing. One of them even has the nickname "Queen of Parts" because she can change your entire look by just giving you a new part to your hair. Several are great at eye shadow, and a few less are great at hair, but still. I've always wondered how they managed to learn these things or just come up with such crazy, awesome hairstyles.

I mean, I'm girly. I always have been. I was never a tomboy. How did I miss out on the invitations to the Learn How to Apply Makeup and Cool Ways to Fix Your Hair classes? (Do they have those, by the way?)

But last night, I finally realized how it had happened. It all came together as I replayed my friends' answers to my, "How do you know how to do this?!" question: "I just played with it."

Really? That's it? And why didn't I do that?

See, last night, though, I remembered: I did.

There was the time I was admiring Stephanie Tanner's (I loved Full House. Who didn't?!) adorable half-pigtails. I wanted to recreate the look, so I tried it. My mom's response: "It looks like you have tumors growing out of your head."

There was the time I saw someone with a side part and thought it looked really pretty. I pulled out a comb, and I carefully parted my hair on the side of my head. I don't remember my mom's exact words, but her face said it all: It looked horrible. (She could've suggested I go for a little less dramatic side part by moving the part just a bit closer to the middle of my head.)

Anytime I tried some sort of clip or bow or other sort of fun twist with my hair, my mom said it looked like there was a tumor growing out of my head. And the one time I tried playing with her makeup, I got in big trouble. Granted, it was Merle Norman, which was evidently expensive, but I never touched her makeup again after that.

So instead, I'm left at age 26 discovering what most of the girly girls in the world discovered at least 10 years ago.

I'm a little behind, but it's nice to finally be here. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot more "keeper" pictures in my future!