Flaxen, Waxen

I am growing my hair out.  On purpose.  

The last time it was this long was about six years ago - I didn't have a stylist here, and I couldn't get down to my guy in Atlanta.  So then, I grew it just because I had to.

The thing about curly hair is that in the wrong hands, you can do some damage.  It's easy to hide bad technique in the chair with a good blow dry and a metric ton of product.  It's not until the next day or two that you start to realize you've had a botch job. I've had many botch jobs.   I learned that when a stylist has a "fun technique" they're going to use on you, it means they recently learned this technique, and you're basically a body-less Barbie sent for them to practice on.

The first botch job was right around the time my hair started changing.  As a young kid, my hair was blond and straight, and shiny.  I had the requisite Buster Brown Meets Dorothy Hammill.

In 4th grade, shit went sideways.  The texture of my hair started changing, my father took me to a cheap mass market Hair Choppery, and she cut layers, which was bad.  There are photos, and I look like a NASCAR fan.  Except for the preppy clothing.  By the time I was in fifth grade, I was fully curly, and ended up cutting my hair short for sixth grade.  It stayed short for a long, long time.  This was my senior portrait.

The shorter my hair is, the better my curls do.  Well, in theory.  I mean, with a good cut and the right product, it looks great longer than this.

I'm not sure if I am in love with the length, but people seem to react favorably to it, and look, if I hate it, I can always cut some off.

What you can't do (and I learned this one the hard way), is CTL-Z on a bad haircut.  Well, you can, but it's a lengthy process (pardon the pun).

Anyway - tonight I am getting a haircut, because even when you're growing it out, you have to thin the herd a little every so often.  I'm trying to decide whether to keep going, keep growing or if I have hit my limit.  On the plus side, it can make a very sloppy pony tail now.  Or two less sloppy pigtails.  On the minus side - it's so much hair, I often have it in a sloppy pony tail.

The best part of the process tonight will be the therapy associated with talking to my stylist, who I adore, and having someone wash my hair.

The worst part is looking in the mirror for all that time.

I'll keep you posted.

ae