Hair Apparent

Back in 1995, I was suffering from some pretty nasty low self-esteem. What did I do? I took the advice of my 50-something boss, went to her hair salon, and got my hair completely chopped off. Think 5-inch-long ponytail gone in a second. And I walked out of there a 23-year-old woman with still-present low self-esteem and a 50-something short haircut. It was an unmitigated disaster.

I immediately began to grow my hair back and made it to chin-length until Gwyneth Paltrow's movie Sliding Doors and this cuteasallgetout* hair cut:


It was cute, kicky, and I would dress up my hair with sparkly bobby pins. It was fun! And high-maintenance. Once this hair style was out of my system, I went back to the business of growing and now, eight years later, I've had a pretty decent head-o-hair. But now? With kids? My hair only sees one style: all-day-wet in a clip. So very unattractive and certainly a hindrance in the bucking-up of my mental self-image.

So, I dug deep. I read Miss Britt's post about her new do. And then I saw my cousin's-in-law recent photo with her new short hair. And then I made a stupid, ridiculous bet with the Ty-man. I bet him that if McCain won, I would get bangs and start wearing my hair like Sarah Palin. Why, oh, why did I do that? I'm so damned impulsive. So stupid. Not because I dislike Gov. Palin or her hair, but because I have the biggest damned cowlick on the front of my head and cutting bangs? Would result in me looking like a pre-schooler with a hunk of hair sticking straight up out of my forehead. Knock out my top teeth and the look would be complete.

Rather than keep up with wet hair any longer (or face down the possibility of a daily wet Sarah Palin-do if Sen. McCain hits the big-time), I opted for this:

Please disregard the lack of make-up and the puffy eyes. PULEEZE!

Fun, angular, can still be pulled back, and it feels lighter, sort of the way my life is beginning to feel.

I love it. What say you?

*It's a word. In my universe, at least.