Let nature run its course

As you might have noticed, I have one goal on my list that would usually not require a lot of work if any.

I'm talking about "growing out my hair".

As probably most women, I have a close connection to the growings on my head. I have heard numerous horror stories of people (well, women), who went to apprentice clippings and came back just sobbing in agony about the mixed salad that was left on their heads.

I believe that is because we as humans, and especially we as women, identify ourselves excessively with that person in the mirror. I used to think that any mishap that happened with my hair would automatically mean that the world and its people would gang up on me and deny me social living status. "What, with that thing on your head? Get the h.ll outta here."

As a kid, I had my hair sorta short, later it grew out, at one point down to my buttocks. Then I got sick of it (my hair is extremely straigt, from root to tip - many a woman envied me for it, but I just found it incredibly boring) and cut it. First to shoulder length, then successively further up the chinline, until I pretty much hit punk length. It has been meandering back and forth between mohawkish and shoulder-length ever since. Usually, I am quite ok with my hair, but there comes the point were it just starts growing too long, then I get nervous and then I find myself at the hair dresser's, explaining exactly what I want, I even bring pictures. The ladies are always very understanding, nodding, acknowledging. Then, once they start wielding their scissors, all I said seems to have blown straight out of the window.

More than once I have sincerely doubted my ability to explain what I want. Maybe I just don't use the right lingo. I must obviously be very badly trained in the correct language to be used in such occasions. The result is always the same. I walk out of the hair studio with hair a lot shorter than I anticipated, it always looks pretty good, even the cuts that make me look absolutely boyish, and curiously, the cuts always resemble one another. It seems that I have one of those faces that each hair dresser within a 200-mile radius just automatically assumes should have this certain look going along with it, no discussion.

Well, that's the reason why "growing out my hair" has made it as a separate goal to my list. I don't even want to get back to long flat-as-hell mats of ginger hair. I just want to have a chance of actually letting it grow in the sections that I think need more length, and having it short where it's getting annoying.

So I have decided to start experimenting. I will study hair, my hair. I will give DIY haircutting a try :o)

I found this lady who perfectly puts into words the feeling I have when I'm at a hairdresser's. There's also some pretty spectacular stuff out there on this topic. Mostly spooky ghost stories of what can go horribly wrong. Others just take up their set of scissors and go for it. Take a look at this fearless lady (with very forgiving hair :o)).

Hairfinder.com seems like a pretty good resource - so I don't see any reason for not trying this one out.

Does anyone have recommendations, bewares, anecdotes? I'd love to hear about them :o)