It’s been almost one year since my last haircut, and it is coming up on two years since I decided to ditch my long, beloved, thick hair for an equally beloved pixie cut. I spontaneously committed to the chop during my senior year of high school, without telling many of my family or friends beforehand. I was desperate for a change and idolized beautiful celebrities like Emma Watson and Anne Hathaway who had cut their hair not long before, so I held my breath and boldly called my local salon to make an appointment. When the fateful day rolled around, I woke up eager to feel like a new person and not have to worry about waking up early to style my hair anymore. Long story short, strands of my locks hit the salon floor at around 4:30 p.m. and I was out the door feeling more like end-of-Tangled Rapunzel than myself a short hour later. The short ‘do was a welcome change. I felt edgy and elegant at the same time, neither description being something I would say about myself on a normal basis. Plus, it gave my highlighted and damaged hair a chance to regrow and become healthy again, making me feel as though getting a haircut was contributing to my overall health as well.
However, like any good thing, the enchantment with my short hair came to an end about 10 months later. After moving away to college and realizing that what little free time I had was not time I wanted to spend getting touch-ups at the salon once a month, I abandoned the responsibility of taking care of my pixie cut. Instead, I made like the people of “The Lorax’s” Thneedville and let it grow.
I promised myself that, until my hair grew to shoulder-length, I would not color it. My natural hair color is a medium grayish brown, which I’m not too fond of, but I was determined to maintain a high level of healthiness for as long as possible. Naturally, however, because I am easily bored and the impulse to walk into Sally’s is far too tempting, I broke my promise and dyed my hair (far less than a shoulder length) blonde about four months later. Luckily, very little, if any, damage was done and my hair continued to grow healthily, maintaining its natural thickness. I had never been blonde before and absolutely loved it, fully believing the adage that blondes really do have more fun. However, eight months with blonde hair was simply too much for me, as I decided once again to dye my hair, this time to dark brown, this past November.
Now, about a month after dying my hair, I have no future plans for any sort of dying or styling, other than potentially getting a trim to fix my abundance of split ends. I am content with hair as it is; dark brown, healthy and a little bit longer than shoulder length. I’ve decided to grow it until it reaches the middle of my back, and then who knows what I’ll do! My favorite thing about hair is that it’s just hair, after all.