Growing
It's been almost a year since I cut my hair, and I still love having it short. But part of the fun of short hair is experimenting and playing around with it. And I've played around with rag curls (epic disaster) and color (amazing) and curling irons (still don't really know what to do with them), and so it's about time to start playing around with letting it grow.
And what I'm realizing is that, for people with incredibly thin, fine, bone-straight hair, there is absolutely no graceful way to go from a short pixie to a bob. Like, none at all.
I know, get it cut in layers. I know, get it cut shaggy. I know, get it trimmed regularly by a professional. Believe me, I'm doing my very best. It's just that I've hit what I'm guessing is the hair equivalent of the miserably gawky pre-teen phase. The longest layer, at the top, is maybe 5" long - just long enough to hit my eyes but not long enough to pin to one side, and because it's so thin and light it looks feathery whether I want it to or not. Just long enough to cover the tops of my ears awkwardly, not long enough to push behind them. Too long to play peekaboo with a headband, but short enough that if I try to tuck it back with said headband the ends stick straight up.
And, again because my hair is so fine, any attempt to put any sort of product in it at this length just weights it down and makes it look sticky and dirty. When it's shorter I can use styling gunk to get it to do what I want (which is usually 'look cute and tousled, but in a cool way'); now it's long enough that I can't get any lift - there's too much weight from the length, so I just wind up with gunky floppy hair. That feathers across my forehead and hides the top half of my ears.
I feel like an ugly duckling, and I'm about to cut this experiment short. Literally. If I can ever carve an hour out of my schedule to get to my hairdresser. Maybe when winter rolls around and I can hide under a hat I'll try again, but for now I think I'm out of patience with this mop....
And what I'm realizing is that, for people with incredibly thin, fine, bone-straight hair, there is absolutely no graceful way to go from a short pixie to a bob. Like, none at all.
I know, get it cut in layers. I know, get it cut shaggy. I know, get it trimmed regularly by a professional. Believe me, I'm doing my very best. It's just that I've hit what I'm guessing is the hair equivalent of the miserably gawky pre-teen phase. The longest layer, at the top, is maybe 5" long - just long enough to hit my eyes but not long enough to pin to one side, and because it's so thin and light it looks feathery whether I want it to or not. Just long enough to cover the tops of my ears awkwardly, not long enough to push behind them. Too long to play peekaboo with a headband, but short enough that if I try to tuck it back with said headband the ends stick straight up.
And, again because my hair is so fine, any attempt to put any sort of product in it at this length just weights it down and makes it look sticky and dirty. When it's shorter I can use styling gunk to get it to do what I want (which is usually 'look cute and tousled, but in a cool way'); now it's long enough that I can't get any lift - there's too much weight from the length, so I just wind up with gunky floppy hair. That feathers across my forehead and hides the top half of my ears.
I feel like an ugly duckling, and I'm about to cut this experiment short. Literally. If I can ever carve an hour out of my schedule to get to my hairdresser. Maybe when winter rolls around and I can hide under a hat I'll try again, but for now I think I'm out of patience with this mop....