Ch-ch-ch-changes!

About four years and five months ago I cut my hair to just below my shoulders. My hair loves being straight, but if it’s at my shoulders it can hold a bit of curl without being so heavy it all falls out (the curl falls out, not the hair). I wanted my hair to be able to hold curl because I was getting ready to make a second first impression soon and it needed to be a good one.

Since then I’ve just done the occasional (I think four, maybe five) trims. Which resulted in hair at or past my waist, depending on how recent one of those trims was.

This was my hair in November when we headed to the temple to get married. I knew it wasn’t going to stay that way because of the length and the humidity (yes, Utah, especially when it is precipitating, is too humid for my hair). You can watch it in various stages of going flat throughout the pictures that day.

I love my hair long like that, but it was time for a change. Hair that long is real heavy. The scalp and ends need to be treated so completely differently (I could’ve washed my scalp daily, but my ends really needed three or four days between washings). And it was just time. So yesterday morning I curled my hair (just a bit at the ends, nothing like the above photo) and Brett said it was a going away party. And off we went.

Here’s the before and after pictures:

Yea! She told me to run my fingers through it to make sure it felt even and it felt so weird for my hair to stop so soon! It’s going to take a bit to get used to having so little now. I know some people get emotional when they cut their hair, especially this much. For me it isn’t that big of a deal. I might keep it about this length for a while. It was between my shoulders and shoulder blades pretty much all through college and until I started really growing it out four years ago. And if I do decide I want it long again, it really only takes two years or so to get it back to being that long.

And yes, Brett likes it too. :turtle:

Now, because I take excellent care of my hair and don’t do anything with chemicals to it, I was able to donate what I cut off for wigs. I’m sending my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths because I want my hair to help people who suffer from cancer. (I have a tough spot in my heart for cancer.) So here’s me with the chunk freshly cut off and ready to go. It’s 14 inches long.

I didn’t cut my hair so I could donate it. I donated it because I cut my hair.

An interesting article about hair donations – NYT: Lather, Rinse, Donate – 6 Sept 2007