Grow, Damn You! (*explicit)

The first thing you should know about short hair is what your hair will do when it is short. Do you have fine hair with little body? GREAT! Short hair is for you! Do you have thick hair with lots of body and curl? Maybe not something you want for the rest of your life.

I am of the latter breed but I think regardless of who you are you fret over making your hair into something it's not. My mother was of the afore mentioned camp and she spent an hour every day curling every strand, teasing, and shellacking it into place. Then the humidity would hit and it turned withery and looked like a hairstyle I would want.

Mine is the opposite. I arise from a lovely slumber to a floret of cauliflower sitting on my head. I straighten and try to pin strands down so they will fall on my head rather than flagging 2" high. Albeit a current resident of the South, I have no desire to don pageant hair and do not ascribe by the words, "the higher the hair the closer to God." Those are not my words, but the words of some other fantastic smart ass.

That being the case, I remember with wistfulness the days where I would roll out of bed, run a brush and some smoothing cream through my hair and walk out the door. Truthfully, I like being able to hide behind a ponytail and pretend my slacker tendencies are a "style." But the Sheltie look had to go and I'm seriously glad I gave short hair another go.

Since this is my playtime for hair I went on Pinterest and looked up interim hairstyles. This way I can get excited about every stage in the grow out. One woman posted on Cafe Gray that she couldn't find enough cute hairstyles for grey hair. I ask you this: when you are a blonde, brunette, redhead do you look at hairstyles only for that hair color? Of course not! You look at hairstyles. Period (in case you didn't see the punctuation mark). So although I enjoyed rocking the asymmetrical bob, I don't agree with some hairstylists who think you can only go short or a chin-length bob with grey hair. You can do whatever the hell you want to with your hair. Grey is a hair color and it's a valid OPTION, just like red, brunette, blonde. Unlike most of the others it's a cool tone which immediately brightens your complexion. So let's explore the cool things you can do with it.

Looking at the pictures you can see a cute pageboy cut with bangs. So freakin' adorable! I can grow into that by late July. After going short you just want something that's uber-feminine and this cut just screams Audrey Tautou. The blonde cut will cry out to my autumnal need for a rocker cut. Autumn is my favorite time of year: it's my rutting season, the weather is cool, there's no humidity (!!!!!!!), and you get to wear cool boots and coats, and scarves (and all the stuff I knit throughout the year).

Finally for the winter I will be thinking holidays, dressing in reds and wanting to look a little less rocker and little more soft and pretty. This Katie Holmes look can be turned into soft waves or mussed for a cool girl look. So the only thing I have to do now is go to my hairstylist and have her teach me how to play with the hair I have now. After all, this should be fun. It's hair. It gets cut, it grows, it can be shaved off- it is a woman's ultimate expression. If you take one thing from this realise that it's not about the color of your hair or your age, it's what makes you feel gorgeous. So ladies, it's time we had a little fun.

 PS- please post pics if you have any suggestions for how to style my hair!

Drinking the Kool-Aid

There comes a point in the greying process- around month 8- that you're just freakin' fed up with the two-tone look. There are wobbles along the way but man! Month 8 is a bitch. At this point you're brave; you've rocked the Sheltie look, you've defended yourself amongst co-workers, friends, family, and strangers. So why not just cut the damn hair off already??!!

And if you're like me, you see so many of your silver sisters who are rockin' short hair, graduated, and looking fabulous. And, if you're like me, you want to be close to done too. This is not a decision to be entered into lightly, you can't just go into the salon on a whim and hack off your hair. Okay you can, but you will be more likely to go into apoplectic shock. Not only will you be SILVER but you will also have to redefine yourself by your haircut.

I took about a month and a half to two months to prepare. Judge me if you like but I drew inspiration from pixies like Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham. I know, I know, but they really rocked their short looks! SO I talked to my stylist a couple months back and yesterday... this is how I came out... It kind of reminds me of my beautiful mom, who we lost last year.

I was a little panicky that my final grey is actually beige but I have to remember that I still have an inch and a half of color on the ends. That incha and a half reflects on my silver making it look beige. When I pull it up *SIGH of relief* there's the silver! SO who knows when I'm actually going to graduate but it WILL be before the big Silver Sister meet up in October.

 For any of you that are thinking about going short, just do it. It's kind of awesome and more than a little rock star. Know your hair type and look for celebrities with similar hair textures. I have THICK hair and so much of it. And although I had two muses for my cut, I had to look at pics with a similar cut from women who had similar hair types. Otherwise, I could have been disappointed.

If you think you can't wear short hair, you're wrong. If you don't like short hair, not a problem, you can rock the long hair and it will be awesome. I'm living proof that anyone can wear short hair. The last time I had hair this short I was in the 7th grade and in love with Prince. Sheila E had this cool short hair with a rattail. Sigh, I tried to copy her. It just looked like a Brillo pad with a dirty little rattail hanging off the back. Bad, really bad. I also didn't know what styling utensils and products were. Bad, really bad. Ugh, really bad. So I had a little trepidation on how this would turn out.

Also realise that this is day 2 of my haircut and since it's my Holy Week (any Eastern Christians know what I'm saying), I have had zero time to play with my hair and train it into what I want. Product is your friend, as well as a straightener. Spend some time playing and you'll get it down to a science (I'm almost positive).

At the end of the day just remember one thing- it's only hair. You are going grey, you are brave. You are rocking a skunk stripe, you are brave. You don't need to hide behind a ponytail. This is such a great time to try new things. I can't tell you, I didn't have a moment of regret. And let me also tell you, that's rare for me. Or maybe I should say, it WAS rare for me. Now I think it's just a part of the new me.