Without the daily dip in our community’s over-chlorinated pool providing cleansing and astringent services, my eight-year-old head was subjected to just-as-frequent applications of Johnson’s baby shampoo followed by grueling sessions involving my mother wielding a wide-tooth comb in one hand and a bottle of de-tangler in the other

Let me make one thing clear: those tag lines promising “no more tangles” and “no more tears” were filthy lies.