The Ahjumma Hair

If you grew up in an Asian family, I’m sure you might have had your share of hair perms aka The Ahjumma Hair / Ahjumma Perm or know someone who has. Ahjumma means “older lady” in Korean. Lots of older ladies and grandmothers like to sport this poofy, curly hair. It’s not only stylish to them, but it’s also a form of convenience as it’s a very low maintenance hairstyle. I swear, from the moment I was born, it seemed as though my mother has had my hair permed. Looking back at childhood pics, I have always don the ahjumma hair. I would admit in some pics I looked kind of cute, but for the most part I looked like a 50 year old lady stuck in the body of a 5 year old.

Hey Unni - Monolid Talk

My older brother use to tease me a lot when I was younger. We always fought and I just never understood how we were related. That is one day when he told me I was adopted. He went on and on about how I was left in a dumpster and that my parents felt sorry for me and took me in. Obviously, this was completely false, but I was naive and believed him. 

Even though I knew he was lying, I started thinking about how I felt like I didn't look anything like my parents. Mainly because my eyes were monolids (no defined crease on the eyelids) and my mother had double eyelids. I started thinking about it more and more and started to believe what my brother was telling me. I remember running up to my mother, crying my eyes out, and telling her that I knew the truth. I brought up the fact that we didn't look alike and how we had different eyes.