Ha!
And, I haven't been to a hairdresser in hmmm... 20 or so years. It just grows, and when I want it shorter, Dad cuts it. Sometimes it takes him a couple of tries to get it even, so it ends up a bit shorter than I intended. Ha! But I don't cut it that often ~ every several years is all. And it's not styled or anything, that's just the way it is.
When I was 19 or 20, I had it permed. Before that, it was just straight with little natural wave or anything. Now, even though I'll be 42 next week, it's *still* somewhat curly if I don't blow-dry it after washing. I guess that was one hell of a "permanent"! Ha!
And that was one of the last times I was at a real hairdresser, but yes, they did always comment on how it was difficult to even make/keep a part, it was so thick. One in particular would go on and on about it.
And, Mom's really was the same way. She kept a short style, so she did visit the hairdresser now and then, and they'd always comment the same about hers. Plus, with her, with all the natural wavy-ness she had, they'd comment that it was just amazing, as most women had to pay to get their short 'do to look like that, and it still always didn't work.
Anyway, mine isn't as thick/dense as it used to be, for some reason. That photo was taken just two years ago, and it's the same now, so obviously it's still pretty 'big'... but it was even thicker before my early 30's, when it started 'shedding' a lot for a period of time. I think from some horrible stress I'd been though before that. And from going through a long phase where I always wore it pulled up/back in the exact same way, maybe, too. And it just never went back to how it had been before. :/
Coarseness runs in Mom's side too. Including our hair.
But mine isn't as coarse as it used to be, either. It used to be so coarse I could do one of those ponytails where you don't pull it all the way through the second or third wrap and have a little left over... but I could get the left over part to stand straight up in a fan. It won't do that anymore. Heh.
Practitioner of the Nerdly Arts.