Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Grow Out My Hair (33 of 40)

I was not gifted with great hair.

There’s an odd cowlick on the back of my head that makes it nearly impossible to not have a Something-About-Mary-Moment every time I wake up.

If I dare to go longer than a day between washings, it resembles the greasy mop of a pubescent pre-teen.

The entire thickness of my tresses can be gathered into a nickel-sized pony, creating size envy among exactly no one.

To its credit, post-pool air-drying does tend to result in some pretty waves, but shower hair is an inconsistent limp tangle if not properly coifed.

I’m also half-convinced it’s plotting an escape due to the ungodly amount of it I find on the counters and floors of my bathroom.  

On top of all that, it grows i n c r e d I b l y slowly. One of the first things I wrote down on my 40 by forty list was to grow my hair out. Even at the onset of this adventure, I knew I would need every possible day to make headway in the direction I hoped to end up. More than that, I needed to put it on the list to hold myself accountable so when the inevitable hairbrained idea to simply chop it all off and start afresh attempted to lure me to the dark side, I would remember that this never works in my favor.

Case in point:

Age 17:

(God bless the one who invented red-eye reduction so that those of us with light eyes didn't have to appear demon-esque for all of eternity.)

Age 19:

(This is quite possibly the worst photo of me ever but, what can I say? It was a dark time. Please feel free to shift your focus on my ever beautiful sis. Seriously. Please.)

Age 28:


(I'm almost certain I hadn't slept an entire night in almost a year so I plead insanity. *Side note: look at my BABIES!)

All in all, I did pretty good resisting the urge, only betraying the goal once last fall when I attempted bangs for the second time in my adult life. The problem with bangs is they are a lot of work…and not nearly as flattering on a rounded face with a couple (dozen) extra covid pounds.


I really did like them the first time around though.


One day this last year I was lamenting my lame locks and pondering the many magnificent manes I’m faced with on the daily here in SoCal when a friend let me in on a dirty. little. secret: hair extensions.

Man, I didn’t know so many of ya’ll were faking it! Well-played.

Just as soon as covid-restrictions would allow, I took my split-ended self to the black market salon to inquire about securing some assistance for my troubled tress-situation. The stylist was very nice, in a you-don’t-come-here-very-often-do-you-sweetie type of way. She raked through my hair, pulling it this way and that, exposing the shock of gray that has taken up natural residence at the lower parts of my cranium.

And then she broke the bad news.

Oh, she’d take my money alright (a couple hundred for the extensions themselves and then one-fifty every 6-8 weeks to move said extensions up!) but the results weren’t necessarily going to be great for someone like me who’s hair is somehow both thin and fine.

Grumble-grumble.

I’m vain, but I’m also cheap.

So, I’m just gonna call it. Some could argue that I have an entire month of potential hair-growth left, but let’s be honest, it’s not going to make that big of a difference considering it’s taken me the better part of three years just to reach sixteen inches.

And also, if by chance my follicles were reading this and indeed staging a coup: I love every remaining hair on my head…please don’t leave!

1 comment:

  1. That was funny :) If I may say, you are quite beautiful, hair and all. Although, when first glancing through the pictures I did wonder who the guy was with your sister.

    ReplyDelete

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