Sunday, January 23, 2011

Shine a light, shine a light

Technology is amazing, people. I'm in Boston's Logan Airport waiting for my flight to Philly. I'm starting to get super nervous about my trip to Philly just in terms of being sure that I can make time to see my friends and do my research. My husband has asked if I'm going to go to the neighborhood where we lived together for a year (my favorite neighborhood in the city) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it, emotionally. We'll see.

My big fear is the reception I'll get from the best friend I had in Philly. He's the owner of a used bookstore and in grad school, I basically spent every hour that I wasn't at school/home/gym at that bookstore. I haven't been in touch since I said goodbye in May of 2008, so I hope he'll be happy to see me again.

So why focus on the negative? Let's talk about future plans. Most importantly, future hair plans. Folks, my hair is getting to the point that it's so long that it strangles me when I turn around too abruptly in bed. I definitely need to get it trimmed/cut to a more manageable level. Especially in order to be able to wear it down again, because when I wear it down now I look like an evil fairy-tale witch.

However... I've been thinking of chopping it all off again. In October of '04, I cut off all my hair and kept it pixie-cut short for another couple of years. I loved it like that, but - inevitably - I got bored and started growing it out and here you see me. Recently I've been thinking of shearing it all off again. But I'd want it super-short. Like this:


(Note: I'm not a huge Natalie Portman fan, but I loved her short-ass hair)

Anyway, I'm excited by the chance of having my hair clean and manageable again, but - as always, there are pros and cons to this haircut:

Pros:
  • I would spend a lot less time on my hair. 
  • I wouldn't fuss with my bangs. All. The. Damn. Time. 
  • Similarly, I wouldn't be obsessing with trimming my bangs all the damn time. 
  • I love really short hair and I loved how it looked on me.
  • It would be very striking.
Cons:
  • I like short hair short. Very short. It's a bitch to maintain (and trust me, it doesn't grow out cute on me), and expensive. Do I have the patience to go to the salon every so often to get it trimmed? When I had short hair before, I went to the salon every two months. And it was looking BAD by that eighth (or seventh, or sixth) week. If I knew how to cut it myself, it would be a godsend. I trim my own bangs and I save so much time/energy on that, but trimming my own shorn head? Hard.
  • I don't even know if I can get my hair cut like that, considering my blunt bangs right now. 
  • I really really like my hair now, and maybe some inches off the length will be the perfect look for me. 
Then again, it's just hair. It'll always grow back, right? And my hair grows fast. 

There's another element to the mix, and one near and dear to my heart: glasses. When I last had short hair, I wore my contacts most of the time. I think my current Ray-Bans are a little too heavy to wear with unadorned hair. HOWEVER. I do have an eye exam the week after next and there's an infinitesimal chance that I might have to change my prescription. If I do, I wrote before that I'd like to change my glasses, either to these:




(All images of glasses are from their respective sites, to which I've linked)

So.

If I change glasses, maybe I can think about cutting off all my hair. But if I don't, I'll get a trim. See? It's like a strategy game.

On top of that, I have interviews right after my eye exam. And I want to keep my hair the same for then so that I can put it up in the way I'm used to. 

So. Here's the plan. Eye exam in early February. That will be the starting point. If I don't need to change prescription, I'll just cut my hair right after the interviews and trim it. If I do need to change glasses, I'll wait till I get them and then see what happens. 

FUN TIMES!

Dudes, it's my flight is being called. Laters!



9 comments:

  1. Wow, I think that is amazing that you had hair so short. I have wanted to do it, but I think I would look odd with it like that.

    Do you have any pictures of you with short hair? You could try growing your bangs out for a couple weeks (a pain I know) and decide then? I got nothing.

    Fly safe and have a good trip!

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  2. I'd love to see a pic of you in a former short hair incarnation. I kept mine short for a couple of years recently. It was curly right after I cut off the weight of the long hair and I loved it that way, but after a time, those curls relaxed and my hair was very straight in it's short form. I have one colleague who routinely cuts her own short hair. Looks very polished ALL the time.

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  3. I think you'd look fantastic with short hair - I think your features are quite striking. However, I agree with Terri - pictures!

    I'd love super-short hair, but my hair is so curly I'm worried about how it would lay. Also, I haven't stopped going bald yet, so I'm going to wait for now. So if you cut, I'll live vicariously through you!

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  4. I realized that it was cruel to post about having short hair without showing pictures. I'll try to find some when I'm doing research - I mean, at the library - and see if I can find one particular set that I loved.

    Thanks for the good wishes, y'all! I'm in Philly now, safe and sound with my hostess and her family and looking forward to reliving some student memories tomorrow...

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  5. I vote for keeping hair longer--think of the glasses! And I love glasses #3 with the tortoise shell.

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  6. SFE, the glasses are really the sticking point, no? And I think #3 are my secret favorite of the bunch! I keep gravitating back to them over and over in pictures.

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  7. Yay for pixie cuts (obviously, I'm biased)! I actually wear and love my big heavy glasses way more often now that I have short hair.

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  8. You do rock your heavy glasses pretty expertly! Hmmm...

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