I was watching reruns at my grandma’s house when I saw a commercial for the Turbie Twist Microfiber Hair Towel for the first time. It was sometime in the early 2000s, and as a self-conscious preteen just starting to care about my looks, I was immediately captivated by the lightweight, tapered towels and the beautiful women wrapping their hair with them. By the end of the ad, I was convinced that this fitted hair towel was a necessity. When the “buy now” number flashed at the bottom of the screen, I sat up straight and called out to my mom. “I need one of those,” I announced with the kind of conviction only a bratty 12-year-old could muster. My mom, used to my antics, just rolled her eyes and said, “No, you don’t, we have towels at home.” I sat with my mom’s words, turning them over in my head. She was right. We did have towels at home, and I’d been using them for as long as I could remember to dry my hair after a shower. I decided right then and there that a towel designed specifically for your hair was an unnecessary extravagance, even if this commercial tried to convince me otherwise. For nearly 20 years, I held on staunchly to this belief. Why buy a towel I can only use for my hair when I could easily twist a body towel (that I already own!) into a hair-wringing turban?Then, I had brain surgery, and suddenly the Turbie Twist became something I simply couldn’t live without.