I very rarely cut my hair. I don’t really like getting hair cuts because I’m a hippy that way and it’s just going to grow back anyway. I also find it very stressful to trust someone I don’t know to give me a haircut without hacking it all off; for some reason, hairdressers often think a 2 inch trim means a 6 inch cut (every girl alive has had this problem at one point). I am very attached to my long hair and love that I can tie my hair in a bun on my head without a hair elastic. Having said that, every summer I get horrible heat rash at the back of my head because my hair is sooooo thick and soooooo long. I had been planning to get an undercut this spring to prevent getting heat rash again. I saw a girl with a small undercut in the Spoke last September and thought it was the most brilliant idea I had never had. I developed a new habit this year of scratching my head when I get stressed and I was hoping cutting off some hair would also help curb this habit during exams. So, Easter Monday I walked into the barber shop base in my home town, bravely hiding behind my step dad and asked the nice lady named Jerry to shave my head.
The length of my hair before I cut and dyed it.
Hair dyed, cut, and now shaved :D
So it’s been about a week and I thought I would share a little bit about what I love about my shaved head and the things that, unexpectedly, I found that I really totally absolutely detest about this experience.
WHAT I LOVE:
- It’s so soft and fuzzy and fun to touch. I just want to pet it all the time, but only up and down because it feels weird when the hair is moved side to side.
- My pony tails are not much smaller than they were before, but finally just small enough to fit into a single hair elastic much easier.
- Washing or curling my hair takes less time time and I only need one box of dye instead of two to dye my hair.
- I can put a new pattern in it every few weeks. It’s like an etch-a sketch for hair!!
- My scratching habit has miraculously disappeared. I think it’s because it is so much more soothing to pet it instead.
- The shock value is fun when people react positively. The faces people make when they realise I have no hair on the back of my head are fabulously entertaining.
- While many people assume that this must have been a very traumatic experience, it was exactly the opposite. I consciously chose to shave my head; no one forced me to do it and I did not have a Britney Spears moment. It felt refreshing and empowering but also strangely cathartic. Finals season is stressful for everyone and we all have different outlets. This one worked great for me because it forced me to relax and let go of something and reminded me that we often take small things way too seriously.
- I didn’t even know that I had chronic neck pain from the weight of my hair because I was so used to it… but it’s gone now. :D
WHAT I HAAAAAAAAATE…
- No one believed I would actually shave my head. Apparently having long hair automatically makes me vain and shaving my head would be a horribly traumatic experience that few people actually believed I would go through and would regret if I did. These people even briefly included my parents, who really should have known better.
- People still did not believe I had shaved my head after I posted photos of my shaved head. Turns out that it’s really hard to include your face in a photo of the back of your head folks, sorry.
- It’s friggin’ cold. I don’t mean the kind of cold where you could put your hands in your pockets to warm them or just ignore the cold and be fine either way. I am talking arctic winds up your skirt when you make a poor wardrobe choice in January…. in Winnipeg. There are just not enough layers anymore. This will go away as the weather gets warmer but until then, hats are my new best friend.
- Every time my jacket collar rubs against the shaved hair at the base of my skull, my shoulders hunch, my spine clenches and I get this horrible feeling in my stomach that makes me want to pee and vomit at the same time. Enough said.
- Everyone feels entitled to give me their opinion if they don’t like the “dramatic” change to my appearance. HAVE NO FEAR MUGGLES MY MAGIC WILL GROW IT BACK. It also disappears behind THE CRAZY AMOUNT OF HAIR remaining on my head if I want it to. IF I WANT IT TO.
- My head felt weirdly off balance for the first several days. It was like a lopsided version of the light-headedness you experience after a normal haircut. I was so use to my pony tail being pulled down by the weight of the hair at the back of my head that it felt like my head kept falling forward on its own.
- Everyone asks what the design means… it’s not a tattoo folks the hair dresser just made a random line picture. I figured that if I trusted her enough to shave my head then I could trust her to put a temporary drawing on it too. Why not at that point, ya know?
- My new haircut still has not attracted Justin Trudeau’s attention. It looks like I’ll have to buy one of Kellie Anderson’s Trudeau sweaters to get close to him after all.