Watching hair grow
So one of the more fascinating things going on in my life right now is that I'm trying to decide whether I should hack eight inches off my hair all at once, or an inch or so at a time over the next several months.
Remember almost two years ago when I made the mistake of thinking that getting a perm would help me out of a rut I was tired of being in? Well, I haven't done anything to my hair since that ill-fated day except wash and condition it, and (only very occasionally) brush it, and every once in awhile trim a little off the bottom. I've been trying so hard to protect it from any more damage. It never looked bad (or at least I never thought so, and if you did, please don't burst my bubble by telling me), but it never felt good anymore after the chemicals. It was like the difference between a healthy, shiny, lithe and lovely real live cat, and the slippery stiff mink stoles I used to collect out of the "as is" bin at the Deseret Industries when I was in college. They both look good, but only one of them is really alive.
So now almost all the trashed part is gone, and the part that is new is fabulous – the problem arises in the zone in which the new part meets the old. First, the texture is different. The new part is wavy and somehow now that I'm turning into a middle-aged person is starting to be sort of coarse and frizzy as well. I like it – in fact, it's kind of what I was hoping to achieve with the perm. The other issue is volume: fully two-thirds of the permed part has broken off at the point where the perm began.
Not that I'm going around looking like someone with a half-assed partially grown-out perm. Remember the year of the top-knot? Or the year of the braid? There are plenty of ways to disguise a bad perm while it grows out. But I'm kind of getting tired of the disguises – or not the disguises so much as the maintenance.
On the other hand, if I chop it all off at once, then it will be so short I'll have NO good options for a disguise. I don't like having short hair. It makes me feel naked and overexposed.
So yeah. I know it's all very thrilling. Aren't you glad I'm writing every day again now?
Remember almost two years ago when I made the mistake of thinking that getting a perm would help me out of a rut I was tired of being in? Well, I haven't done anything to my hair since that ill-fated day except wash and condition it, and (only very occasionally) brush it, and every once in awhile trim a little off the bottom. I've been trying so hard to protect it from any more damage. It never looked bad (or at least I never thought so, and if you did, please don't burst my bubble by telling me), but it never felt good anymore after the chemicals. It was like the difference between a healthy, shiny, lithe and lovely real live cat, and the slippery stiff mink stoles I used to collect out of the "as is" bin at the Deseret Industries when I was in college. They both look good, but only one of them is really alive.
So now almost all the trashed part is gone, and the part that is new is fabulous – the problem arises in the zone in which the new part meets the old. First, the texture is different. The new part is wavy and somehow now that I'm turning into a middle-aged person is starting to be sort of coarse and frizzy as well. I like it – in fact, it's kind of what I was hoping to achieve with the perm. The other issue is volume: fully two-thirds of the permed part has broken off at the point where the perm began.
Not that I'm going around looking like someone with a half-assed partially grown-out perm. Remember the year of the top-knot? Or the year of the braid? There are plenty of ways to disguise a bad perm while it grows out. But I'm kind of getting tired of the disguises – or not the disguises so much as the maintenance.
On the other hand, if I chop it all off at once, then it will be so short I'll have NO good options for a disguise. I don't like having short hair. It makes me feel naked and overexposed.
So yeah. I know it's all very thrilling. Aren't you glad I'm writing every day again now?
1 Comments:
"I don't like having short hair. It makes me feel naked and overexposed."
I feel exactly the same way!
I say don't cut it. Maybe trim off an inch, just to get rid of some of the perm a little quicker but don't do anything drastic. See above!
BTW: Good luck with NaBlo. I'm doing it, too, but I'm not certain how much time/effort I'm going to devote to make sure I post every day.
Post a Comment
<< Home