If cleanliness is next to godliness, then what is messiness next to? I don't know, but it's probably about time I found out — because whatever it is, I've spent my entire life living one house over. For as long as I can remember, I've had dirty socks on my bedroom floor, coffee on my white T-shirts, chips in my nail polish, and empty cups (plural) next to my bed. Maybe it's something that could be hypnotized out of me, overcome through a series of past-life regression therapy sessions, but that hasn't happened yet.
So what's a girl to do when she's inarguably, invariably, uncontrollably, gloriously messy? Embrace it, duh. Stand by your mess! Make it your thing. Buy lots of cheap trinkets — bric-a-brac, if you will — and put it all wherever, like a flourishing garden of bullshit. Get a dog that sheds. Stop wearing white; it's never going to work. Throw out your hairbrush, and your frizz-fighting creams and shine serums, too. Lately, I like to top off my chaotic-neutral self with a generous amount of the new Ouai Dry Texture Foam. I still look like I always just rolled out of bed, only this time, it's on purpose.
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Laced with wheat starches and proteins, the airy, invisible foam sticks to each strand of my long, fine hair to make it look thicker, fuller, and even more undone. A golf ball-sized amount (or what I assume to be the size of a golf ball — I don't know, I don't play golf) scrunched through from the ends and working up enhances my natural wave and leaves it all matte and lived-in-looking, just the way I like it.
Used on dry hair, it takes soft, clean freshly-washed strands into perfectly gritty territory, and helps fourth-day hair look less gross, thanks to bentonite clay, which is good for absorbing oil. Somehow, it never gets crunchy or weighs my hair down; it still looks healthy, which might be the panthenol in the formula. And it smells truly wonderful, like an Aperol spritz that someone put out their cigarette in, in the best way. So why fight the mess, when it looks (and smells) this good? Life is messy. Sometimes it's best to just roll with it.