Friday, November 22, 2013

Long Hair

When I was a young girl, I wished for long hair.  Movie stars had long, luxurious, beautiful hair.  Television ads for shampoo featured models with long hair that could obviously be gorgeous just by using the right hair products.  Yep.  That was for me.

My mother didn't think so.

In her younger years, Mother had a talent for cutting hair.  The ladies in our neighborhood didn't go to a beauty shop but came to my mother for their haircuts.  So it was natural that she would cut my hair.  I think she just didn't have time to mess with a daughters' long, flowing tresses.  Once, when I threw a hissy fit about home haircuts, whining that other girls didn't have haircuts given them by their mothers, she loaded me into the car, hauled me to town and I got a haircut.  Not at a beauty shop, but at a barber.  I came out looking sort of like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals.


I'm not sure I ever forgave her, but I never again complained about a home haircut, and I expect that was the desired result.

Out of habit, I suppose, I have kept my hair fairly short most of my life.




I'm sort of a no-frills kind of gal.  When a beautician asks me how I want my hair cut, my reply is usually, "Wash and Wear."  I have no patience for fussing in front of a mirror to make sure every hair is in place.  So about four years ago I decided to just let my hair grow.  It is now about two inches above where my waist used to be.  And I now realize that Mom knew what she was talking about.

I know this because nearly every morning I spend time brushing rats nests out of my hair.  I should braid it before going to bed at night to prevent this, but I can't seem to get the hang of it.

I know this because if I don't tie my hair up before cooking, I wind up pulling long gray hairs from my food.

I know this because I dragged the ends of my hair through the dishwater today, three times in as many minutes.

And I especially know this because just the other day I had to untangle a cat from these long, flowing tresses.  Cat still has claws on all four feet.  It was not pretty.

I will wait until spring and then off to the beautician I will go.  I will ask for a Wash and Wear style.  And I will donate these long, flowing tresses to "Locks of Love," an organization that makes wigs from donated hair for cancer patients .

I wish for many reasons that my mother were still alive.  But one of the best reasons is that she would get such a chuckle from hearing me tell her that she was, once again, right.

5 comments:

  1. My wife wishes she knew me when my hair was long. She likes such things, but I've kept it short for decades.

    Years ago, on a whim and due to my wife asking I try, I tried to grow it long.

    As it grew, I found I didn't like the extra problems, felt it looked like crap and soon visited a barber.

    My biggest reason for shorter hair is the convenience. A quick pass of a towel after bathing leaves it just wet enough to comb. Within a few minutes, it's dry and I'm through.

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  2. Jess, I just don't have the patience to deal with it. I think I like the idea of long hair, but not the realities of taking care of it. My granddaughters can spend hours fussing with their hair. I can not. They are very much girly girls, while I am more comfortable with jeans and a flannel shirt than with lipstick and high heels. The deciding factor for me to get it cut was having to untangle the cat, who spends time behind my back on my computer chair and likes to play with my hair. That was not fun and I have the scars to prove it!!

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  3. I have long hair myself! Have had for years....I do braid it before bed most times if not I have a rats nest the next day which ends up in a bun for the remainder of the day until I can get to it or my hubby brushes it out for me. My hair is down to my behind so my hair is everywhere if not kept up with. I do mean everywhere!!!
    Little girls ask me often about having long hair and I tell them it takes lots of work to keep it like brushing every night at least a hundred strokes and washing it takes time and keeping it brushed out every time sometimes number of times a day etc.
    I threaten all the time to cut it and donate the hair for wigs but hubby tells me he would be really sad to see me do that. That is why he gets to brush it almost every night to share the load so to speak! Ha Ha

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  4. I suppose if I had a bit of help with the brushing and braiding, I might reconsider the cutting. But because I am widowed and live alone, there is nobody but me to care whether my hair is long or short. Perhaps it is just laziness on my part, but I just don't enjoy the care and feeding of a head full of long hair! I do admire those who are able to have long hair and keep it looking nice. I am not one of those people.

    The final straw was the silly cat, who loves to get behind me and bat at my hair. It took several minutes of trying to extricate a snarling, hissing, clawing bundle of panic from my hair, which was down at the time, and another few minutes to stop the bleeding from the scratches! So come spring, someone else can deal with this hair in wig form and I will go back to Wash and Wear!

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  5. These are great pictures of you Vicki!

    Staci

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