When I was just into my teens, like most girls my age, my
hair had to look right, and I spent ages in front of a mirror styling it. As an
Erbling, I had developed my own method of using a hairdryer – we’re all pretty
inventive at finding a way round a weak arm, aren’t we?
My method was:
- - use right hand to select strand of hair and wind
it over the hairbrush
- - leaving brush lodged in hair, use right hand to
lift left hand up to grasp the brush
- - pick up hairdryer in right hand and direct at
hair, using left arm to guide brush down the length of the strand of hair
- - repeat until hair all dry
I promise you, it is a lot more cumbersome to describe than
to do – and I still do it that way to this day.
Mum however, presented me one birthday with a new hairdryer –
this:
The advantage, she explained, was you could affix the brush
or comb attachment to the dryer itself which would make it easier to style hair
one-handed.
No – I hadn’t asked for a new hairdryer: she bought it for
me, she explained, ‘because it breaks my heart to see you struggling to do your
own hair.’
Her heart was in the right place, and I loved her for caring
so much – but, actually, while it might hurt her to see me doing something so
awkwardly that she could do easily, for me it was the way I had always done it
and it was natural. In fact, even with the attachments, the new hairdryer was
no easier to use and after a few months I gave up using the brush attachments
and went back to my own tried and trusted method.
The moral of the tale? We who have never had the full use of
our Erbs arm are not only creative in finding ways of doing most things, but
this is ‘normal’ for us, as we’ve never known anything else. I understand it is
hard for parents watching your young Erbling struggle, but believe me, we are a
determined species and we will rise to the challenge – and there is a sense of
achievement that comes from overcoming obstacles!
We will find a way!!
