My Hair-RAZING Experience

I'm no stranger to short haircuts. I had it super-short maybe a year after I got married - I wore it in what my sisters call "The Hedgehog." It kind of spiked out in the back. At the time, I loved it. It took like two minutes to do. I had this fabulous hairdresser named Hassan - I think he was Iranian. And he always knew what would look good on me. I just gave him carte blanche and always loved the result. Then he went back to school to become a dental hygeinist, the brat. :)

Then I grew it out. Then I cut it into a bob for several years. Then it was at my shoulders. Then back to the bob. I changed my hair often.

Then I kind of got into a rut. We moved here to Idaho from San Diego, and I just wasn't feeling the creativity, I guess. Plus, I was/am chubby, and I felt like I needed to capitalize on really the only thing I had going for me - my hair. It's thick, and up until this spring, it was grey-free. (I have found two more grey hairs since this post. Yikes. Bikes.) And having long hair kind of made my chubby face look a little thinner.

Ben's been telling me forever that I should cut my hair again - unlike most guys I know, he adores short hair. He kept saying, "You should cut your hair like Aeon Flux":

But I kept telling him that I just wasn't ready, and that, if I had short hair, how would I pull it into a ponytail to get it out of my face? All I do is change diapers, do dishes, pick up stuff, fold clothes - all this stuff where I can't have hair in my face.

And you really have to be totally READY to make a change like that. You have to be fully committed. Ready to just chop it OFF.

Then my dear friend Pats put a post on her blog, and it totally rocked my world. You can read it here, but in a nutshell, she read Tim Gunn's new book and was reviewing the top ten things that she got out of the book. Tim Gunn is one of the judges on Project Runway. I actually haven't ever seen that show, but I know that he is a fashion guru. Patty says he also has a makeover show. So he knows his stuff, right? One of the things he said in his book is that, if you are over the age of 30, you should not have your hair past your shoulders.

This blew me away. I was like, dude. He knows his stuff. He is an expert at style. I've always had this daydream where I get onto a makeover show, and I sit down with the famous, professional hairdresser-to-the-stars, and the hairdresser gives me THE answer to my hair question - What looks good on me??? And here was Tim Gunn, a professional, the best of the best, giving me this answer - cut it off.

Pats was really very kind in her post - she was even like, "Karlenn, don't think I'm aiming this at you - I think you have a good look going for you..." And I didn't take it personally anyways. I didn't think, when I started reading, "Wow, okay, I can take a hint, Pats..." She put up a whole bunch of other things that were noteworthy on her post. (And I soooo need to borrow that book from you, Pats. Or I need to just break down and get a Nook so I can read stuff while I'm in China and not have to pack all of these bulky books. That still is so weird to say - "while I'm in China.")

And I felt like my long hair didn't really fit my personality. I feel like I'm more of a... Meg Ryan than a...Teri Hatcher. More Ginnifer Goodwin than Angelina Jolie. You know what I mean? I wanted my hair to fit me more.

The more I thought about it, the more excited I got to cut that mop off my head! So for the first couple of weeks that I was thinking about it, I was like, "I cannot do something as drastic as Aeon Flux. Maybe a bit of an a-line that hits me mid-neck or so at the shortest." But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to just go all. the. way. Aeon Flux or bust. I loved the thought of a really major, crazy, choppy a-line. So I printed a bunch of pictures off and took them into a new hairdresser.

I picked an edgy-looking place. Turns out that a girl I grew up with owns it! Weird and fun. I haven't seen her in like 20 years. She saw my long hair and said, "Have you had long hair all these years???"

"Nononono!" I laughed. "I've had it on and off. And now I'm ready to make it an off-time."

The hairdresser kept saying, "Are you sure you're ready to do this? Are you sure?"

Oh yeah. I was sure. The more she snipped, the more I grinned. She did a great job. When she was done, it looked like there were three or four wigs on the floor. A looooooooooot of hair. Because she not only cut off like a foot or so of hair, but she also did that thinning thing with those one kinds of scissors. I've had that done lots of times before. Whenever I tell my sisters about getting my hair thinned, they shudder. (They have pretty thin hair texture. I've always been jealous that their hair can drip dry straight. When mine drip dries, it looks like a big haystack.)

Alright, so without further ado, here is my new 'do:

I went to the park that day and got crispy-fried.

Yes, that one piece of hair is supposed to be longer. It's asymmetrical on purpose. Remember, we're channeling Aeon Flux here.

It's not quite as edgy as Aeon, but it's close enough.

Dude, if I had known how hairy my neck is, I would have had her shave it!:

Just call me Wolverine. Mental note - have her shave it next time.

It takes five minutes to do, tops. I've gotten tons and tons of compliments on it. It feels so light and airy and fun. I'm so in love with it. It feels like me.

I'll have the gal trim it again before we go to China, and then hopefully I can find someone there to keep it up for me. I don't think urban China is hard-up for edgy hairstylists, eh?