I don't know what to do about my hair. My hair is very long. I can almost tuck it into my pants.
My long hair clogs my tub. I have a little metal screen over the drain so that my hair doesn't cause huge plumbing problems, but the little metal screen clogs every time I take a shower so every shower I take I end up standing in a few inches of dirty water.
Long hairs collect all over the floor. Not just in the bathroom where I can sweep them into huge possum-sized blobs, but all over the house which is mostly carpeted. Every time I try to vacuum the floor (which admittedly is not very frequently), I break the vacuum cleaner. My hair jams the roller which seizes the belt and then it smells like it's burning up. If I don't stop the vacuum, the motor will burn up or it will burn up the carpet. So when I vacuum the house I have to use a shop vac.
Vacuuming with a shop vac is horrible. It's like scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. I scrape the nozzle over the floor and vacuum a few inches at a time. It's backbreaking. My hair sometimes gets stuck in the vacuum. Not the hair on the floor but the hair on my head gets stuck in the crack where the nozzle pieces link together. This hurts. So I decided not to vacuum anymore. If The Man wants a clean floor (and apparently he doesn't) he can break the vacuum or his back. We really ought to have wood or tile floors anyway.
So in a fit of getting tired of living in a pig sty, I thought maybe I should vacuum and then get a hair cut. So I figured I better decide how to cut it.
I pulled out a pony tail holder and put it on loosely to get a sense of what I might look like with shorter hair. Since it has taken about a decade to grow it to this length, I'm a lot older than I was the last time my hair was short.
With ear-length hair I look fat and old. My hair is missing. All I have is a big ugly saggy face.
With a chin-length bob, I look like a middle-aged woman who works in an office. It was alarming.
I gradually let out the pony tail holder until I got to a length that didn't make me look like I was on the way to the office and ended up with hair a little longer than my clavicles. It looked better but it looked too artificial. I looked too perfect. Like being an image of a woman, like being in drag.
I let my hair all the way out and it cascaded down to my waste. I looked like my granola crunchy self again. I felt much better.
So I gave up on the idea of cutting my hair today and pulled out the shop vac, resigned to my fate.
This year I hung my head, brushed my hair over my head, grabbed it into a ponytail and whacked it off with kitchen scissors. I think it worked okay.
ReplyDeleteI found giving up mirrors to be most helpful. I haven't had a mirror since 2002.
Last year I bought a little one because they are useful if you get something in your eye, but I keep it hidden away unless I need it. I'
Best tips I can offer you are: cut your hair, get rid of your mirrors, and wear a hat.
Your advice made me laugh. I thought about making a pony tail and cutting it off, thereby getting a kind of punk bob kind of style, but then I thought the better of that idea.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny Crow - I have used the same cutting technique in the past, i.e. - layering using gravity. Have also given up mirrors. Recently bought a Flowbee from Amazon, and it actually works.
ReplyDeleteI used to go to this hair stylist who charged 40 dollars for a hair cut; he used a Flowbee to cut his own hair too.
ReplyDeleteWell, one thing I really like about my long hair is it is easy to trim it myself. Or ask people who have no idea how to cut hair to do it. It's not hard to cut a straight line across.
ReplyDeleteI also like that I can braid it and forget about it when I'm hiking. I would braid it on the PCT right after a shower and not take the braid out or brush or anything until the next shower. I'd take the braid out and the hair would still smell like shampoo. It stayed clean.
I've decided to keep it for now. It's mostly no-maintenance.