Jeez, I had some rough experiences as a kid but nothing from an adult like that. Mostly other kids.

Although the fact that most of my aunts and the families' elder matriarchs always said "oh i wish i had hair like yours" whenever I'd visit wasn't much a sign of encouragement.

My hair was pretty normal until puberty, and that's also about the time that most social circles of guys start undergoing "wolf pack syndrome" or establishing an alpha male order, and the group of misfits that I had fallen in with decided that my new nickname would be "poodle" as a way of putting me at the bottom of that order.

I had already had the stigma of having glasses since second grade and this was really too much for me. Looking back on it now I think most people who weren't in my clique really cared, but of course I couldn't see that at the time, I thought the whole world, er, school (really in high school they're the same thing, aren't they?) hated my hair. So I pretty much became a loner for the rest of high school, and then I had some pretty severe social skill issues until my mid-20s.

I know, stupid, right? But when you're a kid with already severe self esteem issues, what else are you going to do?

Anyway, I don't want to join the pity party too much, I guess if anything what I want parents of curlies or curly teens to take away from my story is this: don't let anyone give you **** about your hair. If I had to do the whole thing over again, I would have flaunted it, instead of trying to hide behind futile straightening or buzz cuts.