Spring & New Things

The daffodils are blooming, Finally!  And things are beginning to look a lot more like spring around here.  I have learned over the years that the best time for a New Year's resolution is when the year and everything else around me feel new, which is March, not January when it's still cold and snowy and everyone is still getting sick.  March is also the perfect time to try new things, like a fresh new hair cut.  Although, as per usual, there is a story to go along with my new do.

I got a haircut.  Notice I didn't say I went to get a haircut or I wanted to get a haircut.  I went to my stylist for a blowdry.  As we were getting ready, she commented on the amount of damage to the ends of my hair and suggested a little trim.  I responded that I have been growing my hair out for two years--two years of no heat styling, so this appointment would be the first in a looong time, and one year since I colored my hair.  While I don't really love the gray, although I am trying, I do love how healthy and soft the regrowth is, not to mention how low maintainence.  

A trim, she insisted, just to get rid of those damaged ends.  I relented.  Snip!  She held up a good 5"/13cm of hair and said, Is this Ok?  I replied, "If it's not OK, is there anyway you can put it back?"  Holding the hair aloft like Perseus with the baleful head of Medusa, she looked down her nose at me.  I shrank and replied, "it's fine."  She tossed the hair to the floor and continued about her work, pausing occasionally to remark at just how dry, damaged, and otherwise horrible my hair was.  I glanced at the wispy ombre chunks falling to the floor and tried not to cry.  At the end of the "trim" we proceeded with the blowdry.  An hour and a half later, I walked out to my car and tried not to cry--yes, still.  

 

I don't know what it is about hair, but it becomes a rather sentimental thing.  It's not like I put any work into growing it, it does it all on its own, and yet to see it hacked away feels like seeing my work of art destroyed.  It's the same with beards from what I can tell.  I have a friend who has had some kind of weird rash under his beard for over a year now and all other avenues have failed but he won't shave it so he can properly treat the skin underneath because he has been growing this beard for years and would rather live with the itch than dare be parted from it even though it has become unhealthy.

I suppose there are a great many things in our lives that we hold onto even when they have not only outlived their usefulness but actually become a detriment to our well being.  And sometimes it takes the opinion or advice of an outsider to open our eyes to how our comfort zone is bad for us.  This is the reason I have been so concerned over the trend in recent years of cutting people out of our lives if they disagree with us.  It's true that sometimes people's opinions are just bad and should be ignored, but the opposite is also true.  Sometimes people are telling us things we don't want to hear because they see something unhealthy and want to reveal it to us so we can get away from it.

So, was I mad at my stylist?  No, not even when I saw that first giant swath of hair freshly shorn from my scalp. I wasn't angry because as much as I wasn't ready to let go, I knew she was right.  I hadn't had my hair trimmed much in years and it was time for a fresh cut.  Even without the heat styling and the dye, it would have needed a the frayed ends removed.  In the end, it has to be said, that it's just hair and it will grow back.  Although it is much shorter than I ever wanted, it also feels so much thicker and healthier, it truly was time to let it go and start something new.  I'm glad that someone I trusted stepped in and showed me the light.  

Outfit Info:  Bibs and Bobbins dress by Knitted Dove, Cardigan from YeMak