My mother would be proud... or horrified
Today Chris told me my hair was taking over the world.
I just laughed, but on the inside... on the inside I was ecstatic. Yes, my hair is pretty crazy, and I'm very amused and pleased with it. And yes, this blog entry is going to be entirely about my hair - the glory of this woman who is the glory of some man. Or something. It's important to me because it's like nothing I've ever done before.
The earliest haircut I remember was the one my mother gave my sister and me. It was chin-length with bangs that started from the middle of my head and were cut straight across the forehead. Sounds horrendous, right? We sort of pulled it off because our hair was perfectly straight (like our mother's). I remember a time when Ina Auntie babysat Tammy and me, and she tried to curl our hair for fun. After an hour of curling, mine fell right out. That straight.
At some point fairly early on (I've always been more vain than my sister), I decided beautiful hair was long and flowing and braided, like an Indian. I meant Native American as much as, if not more than, I meant East Indian, but in any case, I decided to grow my hair out. School pictures from first grade already show this. And then around 4th grade, I decided the bangs had to go as well. I was a pretty active kid in those days - playing chase and soccer and just generally running around at recess. Which always seemed to be right before school pictures, so I always looked a mess, exaggerated because I never did anything with my hair (except maybe a headband to keep the growing-out bangs out of my face). My mother often threatened to shave my head. She said it made her hot to look at me because my hair was always all over the place. *shrugs*
By fifth grade my hair was past my waist. I guess that doesn't mean too much since head-to-waist-distance at 10 years old is not equal to head-to-waist-distance at 22, but in my memory it was the longest my hair has ever been. It was thick and perfectly straight and glossy black and everything I had dreamed of playing dress up as an Indian Princess when I was 5. But I was going to middle school, and gosh darn it, middle school is *huge*! I was in double digits. I was practically grown up! And by golly I had to look the part.
So along with buying new clothes, including some really terrible dresses (for some reason I thought growing up and going to middle school meant being a *girl*), I decided to cut my hair. It was a momentous occasion. We took pictures before I headed off to the butcher (otherwise known as Fantastic Cuts), but I'm not sure where those pictures are anymore. Thui (I really don't know how to spell her name), who has permed my mother's and cut our family's hair for as long as I can remember, was quite surprised, but she did it. I had slightly-longer-than-shoulder-length hair for middle school. There was nothing special about it. It was the same all-one-length cut it had ever been, just shorter.
And wavier. Yup, all that weight came off and FOOOOF my dad's genes appeared out of nowhere. Oh yeah, he has curly hair. In fact he had an afro in the '70s, I kid you not. Well crap this was *not* what I had planned! I was supposed to look well-groomed and feminine, but I'd been the type to run around at recess and read books for *gasp* fun. I didn't know how to pick dresses or shave my legs properly let alone tame frizz! In any case, that girlie thing was pretty much out the door mid-way through 6th grade. It was the first (and pretty much only) time in my life that I hated my hair.
*And* I started dancing again. Oh that was good planning on my part. I needed long hair for dance, and then I went and cut off all my perfect, long Indian hair just before rejoining dance lessons. *shakes head* So I grew it out again, and man everything slows down as you get older, doesn't it?! It never got *past* my waist again, but by the time of my Arangetram at 16, it was good enough. And then, you think I would have learned the first time but no, I decided I'd grown it out long enough. As soon as my Arangetram was over... chop chop. I think it's a rite of passage actually. I know very few dancers at Anjali who *didn't* cut their hair drastically after their Arangetram.
At this point I got better about it. I didn't just leave it down... all the time. I learned different ways to braid and twist it. I especially loved putting it into lots and lots of little-bitty braids (which is how I wore it to my high school commencement). It took an hour to do that. :-) (And made my arms really tired.) At some point in college, it just stopped. Maybe it was the stress, but not only was I losing *lots* of it, it also wasn't growing at all, and what was there was dry and dead. Again, I've never really known what to do about that kind of thing. I suppose there are cremes and washes and whatnot to revitalize one's hair (or keep it healthy in the first place), but I knew only one method really.
I cut it off. Myself. Just a few inches at first. Until the summer after junior year, when in a moment of genius (or denial?) I cut it in two layers. I'm sure you all remember this. I could tie a ponytail in the back. From the front it "looked short," and in the back I had a tail. Oh man my mother *HATED* this haircut. My parents came to pick me up for the convention, and my mother didn't speak to me all day because of my haircut. *sheepish* Anyway, *that* little disaster went through various incarnations during senior year, culminating in a terrible terrible Pat Benatar-ish mullet. I'm a little embarrassed about it, but I did get a *huge* kick out of it. :-D (And Brett hung around through it, so I guess that says something good about him.)
Blah blah blah fast forward to two haircuts in Japan, getting rid of the tail, and now several months of growing it out. (It's a little blurry and I accidentally smudged my nose in the editting process, but the point of the picture is *the hair*) Ta-dah!!
You know, I can definitively say it is my best haircut ever. Not because it's attractive or "me" or anything like that... but because it makes everyone smile. Really. (You're smiling right now, right?) I kind of wish it could stay this way forever. ^_^
I just laughed, but on the inside... on the inside I was ecstatic. Yes, my hair is pretty crazy, and I'm very amused and pleased with it. And yes, this blog entry is going to be entirely about my hair - the glory of this woman who is the glory of some man. Or something. It's important to me because it's like nothing I've ever done before.
The earliest haircut I remember was the one my mother gave my sister and me. It was chin-length with bangs that started from the middle of my head and were cut straight across the forehead. Sounds horrendous, right? We sort of pulled it off because our hair was perfectly straight (like our mother's). I remember a time when Ina Auntie babysat Tammy and me, and she tried to curl our hair for fun. After an hour of curling, mine fell right out. That straight.
At some point fairly early on (I've always been more vain than my sister), I decided beautiful hair was long and flowing and braided, like an Indian. I meant Native American as much as, if not more than, I meant East Indian, but in any case, I decided to grow my hair out. School pictures from first grade already show this. And then around 4th grade, I decided the bangs had to go as well. I was a pretty active kid in those days - playing chase and soccer and just generally running around at recess. Which always seemed to be right before school pictures, so I always looked a mess, exaggerated because I never did anything with my hair (except maybe a headband to keep the growing-out bangs out of my face). My mother often threatened to shave my head. She said it made her hot to look at me because my hair was always all over the place. *shrugs*
By fifth grade my hair was past my waist. I guess that doesn't mean too much since head-to-waist-distance at 10 years old is not equal to head-to-waist-distance at 22, but in my memory it was the longest my hair has ever been. It was thick and perfectly straight and glossy black and everything I had dreamed of playing dress up as an Indian Princess when I was 5. But I was going to middle school, and gosh darn it, middle school is *huge*! I was in double digits. I was practically grown up! And by golly I had to look the part.
So along with buying new clothes, including some really terrible dresses (for some reason I thought growing up and going to middle school meant being a *girl*), I decided to cut my hair. It was a momentous occasion. We took pictures before I headed off to the butcher (otherwise known as Fantastic Cuts), but I'm not sure where those pictures are anymore. Thui (I really don't know how to spell her name), who has permed my mother's and cut our family's hair for as long as I can remember, was quite surprised, but she did it. I had slightly-longer-than-shoulder-length hair for middle school. There was nothing special about it. It was the same all-one-length cut it had ever been, just shorter.
And wavier. Yup, all that weight came off and FOOOOF my dad's genes appeared out of nowhere. Oh yeah, he has curly hair. In fact he had an afro in the '70s, I kid you not. Well crap this was *not* what I had planned! I was supposed to look well-groomed and feminine, but I'd been the type to run around at recess and read books for *gasp* fun. I didn't know how to pick dresses or shave my legs properly let alone tame frizz! In any case, that girlie thing was pretty much out the door mid-way through 6th grade. It was the first (and pretty much only) time in my life that I hated my hair.
*And* I started dancing again. Oh that was good planning on my part. I needed long hair for dance, and then I went and cut off all my perfect, long Indian hair just before rejoining dance lessons. *shakes head* So I grew it out again, and man everything slows down as you get older, doesn't it?! It never got *past* my waist again, but by the time of my Arangetram at 16, it was good enough. And then, you think I would have learned the first time but no, I decided I'd grown it out long enough. As soon as my Arangetram was over... chop chop. I think it's a rite of passage actually. I know very few dancers at Anjali who *didn't* cut their hair drastically after their Arangetram.
At this point I got better about it. I didn't just leave it down... all the time. I learned different ways to braid and twist it. I especially loved putting it into lots and lots of little-bitty braids (which is how I wore it to my high school commencement). It took an hour to do that. :-) (And made my arms really tired.) At some point in college, it just stopped. Maybe it was the stress, but not only was I losing *lots* of it, it also wasn't growing at all, and what was there was dry and dead. Again, I've never really known what to do about that kind of thing. I suppose there are cremes and washes and whatnot to revitalize one's hair (or keep it healthy in the first place), but I knew only one method really.
I cut it off. Myself. Just a few inches at first. Until the summer after junior year, when in a moment of genius (or denial?) I cut it in two layers. I'm sure you all remember this. I could tie a ponytail in the back. From the front it "looked short," and in the back I had a tail. Oh man my mother *HATED* this haircut. My parents came to pick me up for the convention, and my mother didn't speak to me all day because of my haircut. *sheepish* Anyway, *that* little disaster went through various incarnations during senior year, culminating in a terrible terrible Pat Benatar-ish mullet. I'm a little embarrassed about it, but I did get a *huge* kick out of it. :-D (And Brett hung around through it, so I guess that says something good about him.)
Blah blah blah fast forward to two haircuts in Japan, getting rid of the tail, and now several months of growing it out. (It's a little blurry and I accidentally smudged my nose in the editting process, but the point of the picture is *the hair*) Ta-dah!!
You know, I can definitively say it is my best haircut ever. Not because it's attractive or "me" or anything like that... but because it makes everyone smile. Really. (You're smiling right now, right?) I kind of wish it could stay this way forever. ^_^
posted by Bibhatsu at 06:59
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