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Well, I finally did it. I got my hairs cut. Pretty much all of them, near as I can tell. I drove down to Des Moines yesterday evening to let my mom do her thing, and I came back north a good pound lighter, despite having consumed more ice cream there than I had had the entire year prior (seriously. I don’t know how I finished it all. But I did. That’s what makes me half Stowers, I think).

It was still a traumatic experience, even though I was in comfortable surroundings, surrounded by those who I can only assume have my best interests at heart. I got my hair cut outside on the back porch, so that birds would use my hair to build their nests and a part of me would rejoin the Great Circle of Life and I would live forever. Or my mom’s basement was really messy. I’m not sure which. My mom put two rubber bands in my hair: one at the very base of my ponytail, another a few inches down. I told her I still wanted to be able to have a ponytail, and she acquiesced. About a second after her scissors touched my hair, I realized I should have specified I wanted to have a ~good~ ponytail. Live and learn. :) The one I have now sorta sticks out straight from the back of my tail like the raggedy tail of one of those little annoying dogs.

She hacked her way through my ponytail and handed me the remains. I put it in a Ziploc baggie and brought it home with me, even though I thought it was a pretty gross thing to do. My roommates seem to agree with my assessment. I measured it today: I lost 8″ - 9″ of hair with that initial snip, which was a touch more than the 4″ I was expecting.

My mom says my hair looks nice. I’m still adjusting to the change. I was expecting hair just past my shoulders. When she was done, I had hair just above my shoulders. Of course, that was with really wet hair. The problem with this is, my hair is straight while wet and rather not straight any other time. My hair is a good two inches off my shoulder dry, as you can see from the picture (and curling outwards as usual, damnit. Katie Miles called it “bouncy” today. I’m now very aware of my hair while walking). I’m consoling myself by telling myself that I’ve simply went from a 2003 Viggo Mortensen to a 2003 Johnny Depp (or at least in a month I might be able to pull it off). This morning I even shaved off my beard and went for a Depp-esque goatee in hopes that if it looks good on him, it’d look good on me. Not sure how that went, but the beard had to go regardless. I’m trying very hard to resist the urge to lighten my hair.

There are decided upsides to this hair. Today, for the first time in six months (or possibly even longer), I ate without putting my hair in a ponytail. I also didn’t wear a ponytail while brushing my teeth or shaving, and I used far less shampoo and conditioner in the shower this morning. I’m sure more positives will come to me as time goes on. Until then, I do not love or hate my new hair. I’m getting to know it.