So I've decided to grow out my pixie cut -- which i absolutely loved by the way. I wanted a pixie hair cut for over a year and for different reasons never ended up doing it until November of 2011, two months ago. I used to have really long hair and it was a sort of security blanket for me, I didn't realize how much your hair impacts your sense of identity, or maybe even self-confidence, or self-esteem for that matter. I decided in 2008 to cut my long hair into a short angled bob and "voila!" I was totally amazed at the transformation. I thought, where have I been hiding all these years?
I felt more confident and spunky, a little bit sassy? I felt like I set myself apart from the many girls who have beautiful long hair, and I thought, "short hair is beautiful too!" Also, I felt like I was rebelling against all of the men I had dated who believed that women should look a certain way, I felt like I was separating myself from old ideas, old notions of beauty etc.
For First Nations women, hair is a source of pride and long hair is valued as a trademark of your pride in your identity, I felt like I challenged that notion, although I respect the women who have grown their hair long for this reason. I decided that my hair is healthy and beautiful, short or long, and that I would embrace the new look as a new chapter in my life. I am a proud Anishinaabe kwe but my identity and sense of self is not tied to the length of my hair.
Fast forward to 2011. After much ambivalence in the last year or so about whether or not to grow my hair longer or to grow it shorter, I decided that short was the way to go. It was totally different and I had never had short hair before -- at least, pixie short. So I went to my friend Shannon who is a hair stylist and said, "do it!" and after the first few cuts I knew there was no turning back. When she finished I hardly recognized myself (again) this time, I thought, "Omigod I love it, and Omigod what did I just do?". When I got home from the salon, after taking a few pictures of my new do and playing with it in the bathroom mirror I decided that I very much loved it.
When people saw my hair their eyes widened and then softened when they told me, "I love it! You can totally pull off short hair" and "I would never have the courage to do something like that with my hair!!"
So, in all of my hair experiments over the last few years I've decided that hair or no hair, many women feel emotionally attached to the long, short, curly, straight, thick, thin, dyed, natural stuff on their heads.
Two months into the short do, I decided that while I loved it I also missed my longer chin length hair. So I decided to grow it again. I've bought a few magazines on short hairstyles and cruise the internet for inspiration. In the meantime I thought a photoblog would be a fun idea to help me pass the time through this growing out phase. Hopefully I find some readers who share my hair adventures or adventures of their own, or perhaps spark some discussion on the emotional significance of hair. I'm not the greatest at uploading pix so please bear with me as I try to figure this out.
