oh! my nappy hair

Yes. You read that right.


For a long time I didn't know exactly what nappy meant. I thought it was a synonym of frizzy. And so I thought Alabama's 95% humidity in 95 degree weather made my hair nappy. Apparently, this is not exactly the case.


So for the sake of this blog post, I decided to look "nappy" up in the dictionary. I was rather surprised (and amused) by the results. {Vocab has always been very much my Achilles' heel, so I guess I really shouldn't have been.}


nap 4verb ( napped , napping ) [ intrans. ](of a horse) refuse, esp. habitually, to go on at the rider's instruction; jib.DERIVATIVESnappy |ˈnapē| |ˈnøpi| adjectiveORIGIN 1950s: back-formation from nappy, an adjective first used to describe heady beer ( late Middle English ), later used in the sense[intoxicated by drink] (early 18th cent.), and since the 1920s used to describe a disobedient horse.nappy 1 |ˈnapē| |ˈnøpi| |ˈnapi|noun ( pl. -pies) Brit.a baby's diaper.ORIGIN early 20th cent.: abbreviation of napkin .nappy 2 |ˈnøpi| |ˈnapi|adjective informal(of a black person's hair) frizzy.ORIGIN late 15th cent. (in the sense [shaggy] ): from Middle Dutchnoppigh, Middle Low German noppich, from noppe (see nap 2 ). The current sense dates from the early 20th cent.
The backstory:

Julianne's oncologist won the American Cancer Society's Quality of Life Award.  The presentation banquet was in Atlanta Thursday night, and Mama and I went in his support.  We passed this on the way:

And then I found 20 dollars.  {Yeah, that is all.  Sorry the story isn't more elaborate.  I just thought the hair salon had a cool name.}


I bet you can figure out which definition of nappy applies in this case...