When the world first met Taylor Swift, she was a teenage girl with a twang in her voice, a guitar in her hands, and a head of enviable ringlets that caused storms of tweens to flock to their local Targets to stock up on curling irons and hot rollers.

But if you’ve paid attention to Swift these past few years (and really, how could you not), you may have noticed that her hair has changed dramatically. Those ringlets, which once cascaded down Swift’s shoulders, have been replaced with stick-straight hair.

Because of this, fans have been buzzing about how, exactly, she achieved this remarkable act, with most thinking she either invested in a really great straightener or unearthed the world’s best straightening treatment. But in the April issue of Elle, Swift revealed that one of the big things she’s learned in her 29 years is that hair can completely change texture. As she told the magazine, “From birth, I had the curliest hair and now it is STRAIGHT.”

So, apparently there’s really not some super-secret magic straightener or treatment to be found. Bummer. Though, according to Swift, it has been a bittersweet hair transformation. “It’s the straight hair I wished for every day in junior high,” Swift says. “But just as I was coming to terms with loving my curls, they’ve left me. Please pray for their safe return.” (Trust, we will.)

In addition to finally explaining what really happened to her hair, Swift tells readers that she hasn’t always been someone with makeup — and makeup habits – you want to copy. “After my teen years and early twenties of sleeping in my makeup and occasionally using a Sharpie as eyeliner (DO NOT DO IT),” she says.”I felt like I needed to start being nicer to my skin.”

Now, she’s majorly into moisturizer. “I now moisturize my face every night and put on body lotion after I shower, not just in the winter, but all year round, because, why can’t I be soft during all the seasons?!”

We couldn’t agree more. And on an empowering note, because there usually is one with any Swift interview, she also revealed that she’s already — at not even 30 years old — privy to the nonsense that society feeds women about aging. “I’ve learned that society is constantly sending very loud messages to women that exhibiting the physical signs of aging is the worst thing that can happen to us,” she says, noting that this bizarre goal of everlasting youth “isn’t even remotely required of men.” And she’s right about that.

With that sort of knowledge in mind, we could see a future in which Swift is rocking a head of gorgeous gray curls? If her natural ringlets do come back, what’s stopping her?