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07 September 2010

Hairy Tales

I've been a long haired beauty  (ha!) for most of my life, if you don't count the few mishaps in between.  But those debacles are always spur of the moment and I regret them almost instantaneously.  Luckily for me, my hair grows at super speeds, spurting out at least an inch every 3 weeks.  You'd think with this super high power growth, that I'd have hair like Rapunzel by now.  Well, I would except....

When I was about 7 years old, I begged my mom to cut off my lovely locks which fell well past my shoulders.  I have no idea what my little mind was thinking at the time but the second it was cut off, I immediately regretted it.  I looked like a boy.  A boy that wore dresses.  So I set out on a quest to get it to grow back as soon as possible.  Anytime I was alone in the bathroom or near a mirror, I pulled and pulled on the ugly short strands, trying to coax them to become longer.  With time, I was me a again, with long hair and life was good.

Although I was a young child of the 70's, the 80's did not spare me and thus began the decade of not just bad music, but bad hair-do's.  In fact, most of those years my hair was feathered, curled, sprayed, permed and spiked at one time or another and most always cut above my shoulders. 

I don't like to think much about those so let's just fast forward to the 90's where I became a blonde but at least my hair was long again.  But not for long.  As life would have it, I got a job at a hair salon where I fell victim to the stylists wanting to try all the new do's on me and am ashamed to say that during my tenure there, I went from permed to straightened, long to layered, from light to dark, and ultimately, got the 'Rachael' do.  Yes, I did. And don't you dare laugh because you know you wanted one too.   But all of those do's were time consuming as I spent mornings washing, conditioning, putting in endless arrays of products, blow drying and curling.  I felt like a big vat of hairspray and god forbid if I had to go camping or got caught in a rain storm.  It just wasn't me.  So I began to grow my long hair out once again.  I chopped off the Rachel 'do' and wore my hair back in a short bun until it all grew back in long.

Things have been a bit better since we entered the new millenium.  I've learned my lesson - keep the hair long.  But that hasn't stopped me from messing with what's already perfect.  Again, I've gone blonde for a few years, and then hopped on the dark brown bandwagon and kept it that way for the most part.  Sometimes though after watching back to back episode re-runs of ANTM, I will get inspired and chop off some locks to make some cool 'bangs' or some model-esque long layers.  Of course, I hate it instantly and have to wear a head band for months to hide the bangs until they grow back out.  Just this month I decided to go blonde again over a few glasses of wine with my sister.  We put in some bleach blond highlights which turned blonde at the roots and red farther down.  Of course I went back to dark brown soon after - closest to my natural color and easiest to cover the gray, yes gray strands, that insist on appearing out of nowhere.

Can't you just see it - 'Rapunzel, let down your hair'.  'Why I can't Prince, I was bored and I've just cut it.'    Why do I do this?  Have there not been 100's of hair lessons lived and learned by now?  Just the other day I was going through old photos (remember those days?  the ones where we actually had to get film developed!).  Almost every other roll of film showed a differed hair color or a funky do.  I can't say I've found a happy medium - just yet - as of now I am working on growing out these long layers that I cut on a whim last winter.  Only one rule I have now -  keep the long hair.  That's the me I've always felt best as.  Learning to curb the urge to cut and then regret is a cycle that I must not repeat!

1 comment:

  1. I totally identify with this! I look so bad with shorter styles of hair, I have no idea why I get this compelling urge to just cut it off sometimes. And every time I've given in, I've been sorry. Sigh. I did it again recently though, cuz I just CAN'T seem to learn....my hair is very curly and the longer it gets, the tanglier it gets, and sometimes I just get tired of pulling my own hair. It's in the growing out phase again though, and much to my chagrain, grows faster than I'm willing to dye to it, and I can see the grays coming in too! lol

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