The last time I had a “real” haircut was the day of C’s big bike crash, aka July 2010. I’ve had one trim, back in May, but other than that it’s been an experiment in growing my hair out again. (Again, as in: I had almost waist-length hair in college, cut it shoulder-length, then pixie; have gone back & forth no longer than shoulder length until this last time around. It’s currently at the middle of my back.)
The last few days it’s been particularly wild and frizzy, and last night when I was undoing a braid, I ran into little tangles at the nape of my neck so horrible I almost started to cry. I trimmed off the ends myself, and was _this_ close to having C just cut it all off. [Edit: here’s a photo I took the day after I wrote this post.]
In a less emotional state, it seems like I have two options: another trim — since I was almost at this state with it in May, got a trim, and then enjoyed the length again — or something significantly more radical.
Two opposing thoughts keep batting around in my head: “It’s hair, it grows” (Mom, when I showed up as a teenager with an impromptu haircut by friends) vs “I wish I had grown mine out longer when I was younger, I can’t do that with my hair now.” (Grandma N, when I grew it out at the end of high school)
And yet, today, having trimmed it a tiny bit last night and then washed it this morning, I was actually enjoying doing up a french braid. I keep wondering if I’ll regret it the second I’m done.
I’ve looked at an Ask Metafilter that I did years ago, asking for help the last time I went from longish to shortish. And found the photo of what I did with that advice…a pic from my 34th birthday. It wasn’t too bad, really. I could be pretty happy with that. I’ve also thought about something sort of the opposite of that, short in the back, longer in the front, although I’d need something fairly complicated for it to not be totally annoying.
So, yeah. For right now I might just get a bit more of a trim, some shaping and long bangs, see if I like that and if not…well, it might be time for something interesting. (Hmmmm, maybe I should get a streak of color in the bangs. Purple?)