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March 20, 2006
...And that's a pretty nice hair cut
Yesterday I cut my hair. After two years of the painstaking growing out process, I broke down at last, having spent an entire day obsessing over Natalie Portman's Golden Globes hair. Before that, my eyes had begun drifting to the short dos I'd spot on the train or in magazines. Before shampooing, after my stylist was convinced I did actually want to cut that much off, she bunched my hair at the nape of my neck and it hit the ground after 3 quick snips.
At that moment, I started grinning. For some reason, short hair makes me feel like myself. Whenever I walk out of a salon after a drastic cut, I feel more confident and put together. Maybe because the standard pony tails made me perpetually casual? I don't know.
In high school my hair fell to my hips. It was ridiculously long, but didn't look gross like it can when girls don't trim their hair and it gets horrible split ends and scraggly like an old wash rag. You know what I mean. Not me. No blow drying, shampooing only every other day, combing through only when wet (although I didn't brush it much), and consistent trimming. Even when I donned my thrift store flannels and cords and big boots, I took care of my hair. My mother had so ingrained these principles of hair care into me, no fashion craze could or has driven them away. And I was well known at my church and my tiny Christian school for my flowing locks. I cut 6 inches off before college, which took it to the middle of my back. So still pretty long, but there was much shock.
In college I went short and didn't look back until senior year as I went through the growing out process, only to chop it once again after graduation. Having short, slightly funky hair had become a part of who I was. It's how I am most comfortably myself. Why is that? I've been told I can do short hair very well, and my best friend thinks it suits me far better than long hair. But when I go back to my old church, there are teachers and parents that still shake their heads and say "I remember when your hair was so long," and still haven't quite recovered from that first day I came home from college with my legendary tresses gone.
But I love it. Hair is important to me, and though I don't have much left, my hair is fabulous. And that makes me feel pretty fabulous. Is that vanity?
| By heidi | 5:31 PM