How I did it: Okay, I said three months because that's the time it took for me to very firmly decide to chop a foot of hair off, set the appointment, and DO IT.

And now. I. LOVE. MY. SHORT. HAIR. to death. I want to be a hair farm now (esp since I can't donate blood without getting deathly ill) but I don't know if I can let it grow out that long again.

I did send it off to donate it although afterwards I heard some sketchiness about Locks of Loves and financial stuff (they charge clients for the wigs?), so I dunno. A friend told me about another place that accepts hair donations (Pantene?) and they provide wigs to adult cancer patients as well. Also, they'll take a minimum of eight instead of ten.

I'd so do it again in a flash. I'm only a little upset I didn't do this all sooner! I've never had hair this short before! I LOVE IT TO DEATH. Did I say that yet?

Lessons & tips: Tips? If you've struggled for your entire life fighting nasty knotty curly hair, I suggest you do this in a heartbeat. You'll wish you did it years ago. I've never been happier to have curly hair, well, I've never been happy to have it, but now I can live with it and not dread showers and forty minutes of hardcore brushing anymore :)  YAYAYAY

Oh yeah, I almost never go to salons (this was my third time ever going, and I'm 26), so I went somewhere nice and not DIY for this cut, plus it was my birthday so I also justified paying 60 for a haircut that way. Ask the stylist/place beforehand if they can help out with the cutting. My stylist even brushed it out and measured it for me, rebraided it, cut it, and lent me a bag for it since I had forgotten the packaging in the car. Too cool.

*If you have curly hair make sure the stylist specializes and/or has a lot of experiece with it. otherwise you end up out of $$ and with triangle frizz ball hair syndrome. I've seen it. I've had it. It's actually less pretty than it even sounds, believe it or not. Plus it's no longer the  80s so there's really no justification left for it.

I've also heard some places offer discounts, so look into that. I was too desperate to do the full research, I had a good rec for a stylist great with curly hair and it needed to go, bad, before I took a knife to it myself.

Oh and by the way, if you dislike and don't appreciate your hair like I did, at least someone else can hopefully :D that, or as the stylist and a friend joked, I'll just be passing it on and inflicting it upon someone else, but at least it won't be my problem anymore ha.

I so so wish I hadn't listened to other people (nooo don't cut your hair it's blah blah bla even though I'm not the one who has to take care of it let me tell you what to do and not be supportive at all blah blah blah) and done this many many years ago. Don't listen to the nay-sayers, DO IT. And hell if you don't like it the damn stuff grows back.

Oh and as supreme validation I had quite a few people fess up they were wrong to urge me not to cut it after all. So there.

Actually, don't tell anyone you want to cut it, just do it. People love to tell you what to do and you shouldn't listen, especially since you weren't even asking them for their opinion in the first place.

/soapbox

Resources: patience and mercy of a great stylist-- I had no idea what I wanted to do with my hair beyond chop it all off. she pretty much set me up for as low maintenance a style as possible, which I'll be forever grateful for.

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Dec 08, 2009, 11:52AM PST | 1 comment | 4 cheers