Haircut

I just chopped my hair. All in all, the total damage was 4-5 inches. It was getting so long and unruly and I felt it weighing me down daily. It must have been really bad because I even told the new girl that I wasn't attached to the length at all.

"Just do whatever you think."

Ok, so here is where all you girls with thick, curly hair gasp. We all know by now that you can't ever say that to someone with that much power over our lives.

The first truly horrible school picture I had was fourth grade. That was when my hair began to resemble a redheaded Richard Marx. For some reason my mom was convinced that with that much hair, we HAD to keep it short. By sixth grade (conveniently the worst grade ever to socially stand out in any way) my hair had a life of its own. And it was a short, frizzy, bushy, out of control life. I haven't had the therapy to really delve into some of the trauma that was sixth grade at Longfellow. Let's just say that the nickname "Salad" came about one day in Mrs. Lindberg's science class and didn't leave for many months to come. My diary from that time resembles one of a total unstable, violent, angry, come-to-school-and-fire-away-at-the-mean-kids girl. And I can honestly say that so much of that had to do with my horrible hair.

It was near the end of eighth grade, getting ready for opening night of the Variety Show, when I finally discovered mousse and it changed my life. Eventually I stopped the cutting, survived the difficult growing out phase and learned to stop brushing it out. Freshman year was a whole new ball game. A year later, I even had my first official boyfriend. I'll never forget when we went to go see "A River Runs Through It" at Ridge Plaza and he asked me for my school picture.

These days my hair routine is similar to our nighttime routine with the girls in that, regardless of what others say, I know the exact process that has to take place to avoid total anarchy. I know when hair people tell me to try new products - a sculpting creme or something, or if they want to show me how to blow dry it out, I just smile and nod. When I go home the routine remains the same: brush it out with Pantene in the shower, Finesse Curl Revitalizing mousse afterwards, a couple scrunches and that's it. Some days its better and other days its worse but it is by far the most reliable daily ritual I have come up with and I am sticking with it.

That's why this haircut was so crazy. I just let a total stranger chop away at it with no regard to how far I have come. I must have really felt I needed this kind of a change. Also I'm just too exhausted from daily life to think too much about it. Its just less annoying to deal with.