My Students Think I'm Beautiful

Because the weather has finally gotten a little cooler, I decided to wear my hair down. I didn't think to much of it. I did think that it was nice to be able to wear it down and not have to worry about my hair getting stuck in a back pack or something.
Anyway, on Tuesday, I had my second elementary school visit and that is the day I wore my hair down. I had classes with all of the 6th graders. They were completely fascinated with my hair and my eyes. At first they thought I had a perm, but then I finally convinced them that it was natural curl. I told them that my friends have curlier hair and they were shocked.
The kids followed me around the school and asked me a lot of questions. One of the girls finally asked if I did anything special to have nice skin. I told her that I drink a lot of water (3-6 liters a day. No Joke!) and that I try to avoid the sun at certain times of the day because I get burned. She asked about moisturizers and facial lotions and I told her that I didn't use any of those (unless the climate is dry). She and her friend were shocked. They were sure that I was not telling them the truth. They were so cute though, because they kept giggling and telling me how beautiful I was.
At lunch, I ate at a table with 6 students. They were too shy to try and speak English. I asked them a few questions in English to encourage them to speak English (since that is my job), but I didn't say anything in Japanese. The boy to my left was too shy to make eye contact, but he kept staring at me when he thought I wasn't looking. He kept talking about my "pretty, green eyes". This all took place in Japanese. Finally, he commented on how well I was using my chopsticks and the other 5 students made comments about it as well. I couldn't hold back anymore, so in Japanese, I said that I am not good at using chopsticks. You should have seen their faces! First, shock that I spoke some Japanese, then embarrassment that I understood what they had been saying about me. It was so adorable, but hilarious, too.
After lunch, I went to my junior high to finish out the day. At this point, it hadn't occurred to me that my students had never seen me with my hair down. It has been pulled back in a bun every day because it is so stinking hot! (For those who don't know, my hair is down to my waist. It is reddish-brown and wavy). I didn't think it was a huge deal. It's my hair and I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Except that one girl walked into a wall because she was staring at my hair trying to figure out who it belonged to. The teachers stopped and commented on my hair. Many of the students asked if they could touch my hair and were surprised at its softness. Four girls decided to try and style my hair rather than do their part of the daily clean-up. But the coolest thing, is that among all of the students who stop and tell me how beautiful I am, the students who are usually too shy to talk, are the ones who are going out of their way to talk to me.
I'm guessing the bun was to intimidating, but next to chopping off my hair, it seemed like my only option.
Several of my students told me that I looked like a beautiful ghost. They then asked me if I had a nickname, so I told them that my friends call me Casper (because I look like a ghost). Of course, they giggled.
I am amazed at how something so trivial as hair can cause such a reaction.