The Long and Short

Long hair….or short hair….or long hair….or short hair….

Decisions, decisions.

I’ve been in a long hair vs short hair debate with myself for a couple months already.  But first, a little hair history.

As a child I always had shoulder-length or shorter hair.

It simply wouldn’t grow long.  That, and I think my mom preferred me keeping it short.  The above picture is the longest it ever got in elementary school.

In the 5th grade we cut the sides and I rocked the “She-Mullet”:

Yes, the SHE-MULLET! Ha ha ha ha ha….okay, it was really COOL back then, don’t laugh.  Only “I” can laugh, okay?

Thankfully, by the 6th grade the mullet was cut off and I just had short hair.  FEATHERED short hair.

Hmmm….that looks a lot like Trevor!

And that is why I’m afraid of short hair- I think I look like a boy.  Thank goodness for boobs, right?  And make-up.  But back then we didn’t have those (boobs or makeup).  I actually remember asking a couple of the boys in the 6th grade if they thought I was pretty and they told me I was “just OK”.  Ouch. Must have been the hair.

OK, let’s keep going….

After 6th grade I started growing it out again.  My mom started perming my hair for me in the 7th grade.

7th grade school picture: natural haircolor, loose perm.  “Madonna” was my hair inspiration.

“Punk” was coming in and girls were cutting their hair short.  This hairstyle here is THE shortest I have EVER gone.  8th grade.

Fast forward to my senior year (forget the black hair and shaved sides in the 10th grade- fortunately I didn’t save any of THOSE pictures)…here’s my Senior Picture:

I do have to say that although perms were stinky, difficult to maintain and manage, made for frizzy hair…..but they sure gave my hair some fullness and body!

This next style would take me about an HOUR to do.  It involved washing my hair at night, putting mousse in it, sleeping in pincurls,
waking up to brush those out and re-curl spirals with the curling iron,
spritzing each curl with hairspray to set, then separating each curl and spraying again.

Tons of product.  Gah.

Sure was pretty hair, though!

After highschool I kept growing it out.  Still getting perms.

My best friend in 1995 was a hairdresser- I’d get perms, highlights, we had tons of fun with my hair.

This picture here is officially the LONGEST my hair has ever been in my entire life:

Another view (blown out again to be straight):

Yep, bra-strap long.  That’s all.  That’s the longest my hair has ever been.

The next year I meet Jim, we get married a couple years after that, have a kid….

Within several months of having Trevor, I chopped it all off to a short “Faith Hill’ style.  It was fun, I really liked it!

But then I started growing it out again, missing the long hair.

Pregnancy really helps the hair to grow fast- didn’t take too long to grow it all out!

Here’s my “Jennifer Aniston” do.  That was also a fun hairstyle, but time consuming.

Still growing it out- long bangs, long hair.

I tried the super-blonde-at-home thing.

Yeah, that was a bad idea.

I decided long hair just wasn’t right for me.

Bangs make me look softer.  No bangs = harsh.

Yellow hair is no good.  Not even on Nicki Minaj.

All one length is no good.  I  need face framing layers.

So I started having my neighbor next door help me out with my hair.

Although I really like this look, it’s too “Mom” looking for me.  Too mature.  Not sassy and fun.

So one day I took a bold move. I went short. Really short!

Sadly, I never took any pictures other than this one, which does it zero justice.

I enjoyed the short hair, except that I felt like it made me look very masculine.  And I had to take lots of product with me when we traveled, and a blow dryer was a must!

So I started growing it out again (thank goodness for Facebook profile pics!  That’s why I have all these headshots!)

And then…… …and then I went brunette!

And then I went really brunette as I grew out my hair to a chin-length bob:

THAT is probably my all-time favorite style and color.

After a while though I got tired of the brunette, so I had my neighbor turn me back to blonde:

And I’ve been growing it out ever since.  When my hair was short I missed being able to pull it back into a ponytail, or letting it air dry.  The problem is my hair is so thin and fine, that it looks weird in a ponytail, my head is so tiny that I feel like I look like this:

OK, not THAT ugly, but pulling back my thin hair on my small head makes it all look even smaller.

No ponytails.  Hair that has to be permed or curled or blown out and flat-ironed in order for it to look good?  That’s NOT good.

So back to short, I’m thinking.  But how short?

So here’s my hair today yesterday:

Boring.  Blah.  Air-dried unstyled hair.  Gak.

In order to give it any style I need to curl it or run the flat iron through it.  Even with “style” I still find it so boring.  I dread doing my hair everyday.  So I knew it was time to go shorter.  I’m not ready to go super short yet, so I did a choppy bob just to get me through the next month or so while I continue to debate how short I want to go.

One thing is clear, though, my hair is not meant to go past my shoulders.  Stay tuned!