Actually, let me explain why I have short hair in the first place. One of my favorite features, aside from my eyes and winning personality, is my hair. When I was very little, I cut it myself with scissors in the basement of my house and it looked pretty awful. After that experience, I never wanted to get it cut. It would get obscenely long, very difficult to wash and exceedingly tangled but when it came to be family hair cut day, I would ask for a two-inch trim. Given that my hair grows more than four inches in a year, this meant that my net hair growth was pretty high between the ages of three and fifteen(? I don't really recall these stages of life because I have poor photo documentation of them).
I felt the same way about my hair before each donation. I wait for about a year, only getting little trims so that my hair retains its length and health. It gets ridiculously long, and all semester all I think about is getting it cut - but would it be too short? I worry a lot about it looking ridiculous because it's hard to imagine yourself without something you've always had (hair past your shoulders). Now, I loved my hair after my first and second donations. It was light and freeing and shocking but it wasn't anything too crazy. I considered it really short but to most people it was a normal length (though certainly it was a different look for me).
Well. I think I donated too much last time. It was fun for a while but there are so many challenges of short hair that I didn't anticipate! This brings me to my actual point: my long term goal is to have long hair but my short term goal is to not have my hair look ridiculous. This means I guess that I have to trim it frequently and wash it all the time and maybe even use styling products which is way more maintenance than I am used to. Although it takes less shampoo, I would definitely argue that short hair takes more effort than long hair, and for a person whose goal it is to minimize effort, that's unfortunate. So now I'm stuck trying to get my hair trimmed enough to look decent (I'm embarking on the long process of evening out the front and back of my hair) without losing all my length.
But don't get me wrong - I'm definitely still on the donating boat. I don't see the point of having hair if you're going to keep it to yourself and not share it with people who don't have it. I'm pretty lucky in that I have a variety of shades of blonde, and my hair is a nice thickness but doesn't take any extra care, and I have absolutely no inclination to dye my hair (which is not allowed for donations) - so if I can deal with having hair a little bit too long for my taste and also a little bit too short for my taste, there is basically no reason for me to always get 2 (or even 4 or 6) inches cut off at a time. Might as well donate, yes?
I'm just saying try to keep the long run in mind when you're making decisions about your hair. If you want it all chopped off, fine, but think about if you want all your hair at the same length or if you can deal with layers or whatever growing out and looking a little weird. To paraphrase a very good but very overused quote, with great hair comes great responsibility - both to share it and to keep it lookin' good.
Well. I think I donated too much last time. It was fun for a while but there are so many challenges of short hair that I didn't anticipate! This brings me to my actual point: my long term goal is to have long hair but my short term goal is to not have my hair look ridiculous. This means I guess that I have to trim it frequently and wash it all the time and maybe even use styling products which is way more maintenance than I am used to. Although it takes less shampoo, I would definitely argue that short hair takes more effort than long hair, and for a person whose goal it is to minimize effort, that's unfortunate. So now I'm stuck trying to get my hair trimmed enough to look decent (I'm embarking on the long process of evening out the front and back of my hair) without losing all my length.
But don't get me wrong - I'm definitely still on the donating boat. I don't see the point of having hair if you're going to keep it to yourself and not share it with people who don't have it. I'm pretty lucky in that I have a variety of shades of blonde, and my hair is a nice thickness but doesn't take any extra care, and I have absolutely no inclination to dye my hair (which is not allowed for donations) - so if I can deal with having hair a little bit too long for my taste and also a little bit too short for my taste, there is basically no reason for me to always get 2 (or even 4 or 6) inches cut off at a time. Might as well donate, yes?
I'm just saying try to keep the long run in mind when you're making decisions about your hair. If you want it all chopped off, fine, but think about if you want all your hair at the same length or if you can deal with layers or whatever growing out and looking a little weird. To paraphrase a very good but very overused quote, with great hair comes great responsibility - both to share it and to keep it lookin' good.
