I had long hair. I was six. I cut it to above my shoulders. I didn't like it. I grew it out long again. I was thirteen. I cut it to above my shoulders. I didn't like it. I grew it out long again. I was eighteen. I cut it to my shoulders. I liked it. I got a bad trim. I cut it boy short.
I cut my hair short (the first short, not the super-short) this last year for two reasons. Firstly, I was itching for change. Secondly, I had started looking at girls' hair around campus, and I was horrified by how much dead weight was being carried around. Didn't they know how much healthier their hair would look if they took off four inches? It made me look at my own long hair, which I had been so dedicated to.
Long hair has a glamorous reputation in our society. The popular belief is that men prefer long hair to short hair. Short hair is often seen as an older women's cut, and no one (not even the actual older women) wants to look like "an older woman."
Side note: my first day into work with my new boy cut, my boss said, "I know why you cut your hair like that! For the bars! You look at least 22."
Take a look at the characters in recent popular trend-setting shows and movies: Serena and Blair in Gossip Girl, Carrie in the Sex and the City movie - all of them have long, flowing locks.
Of course, it doesn't actually matter what Leighton Meester or Sarah Jessica Parker's natural hair looks like, because they have on-hand stylists who can make their hair look gorgeous with any type of cut. Most of us don't have that sort of help. I'm so low maintenance with my hair that I'm too lazy to use hair gel (which the stylist advised me to use for my boy cut).
However, there is also an opposite camp - the Victoria Beckham and Katie Holmes followers - who are taking off the inches and keeping it short.
Now I've gotten two extreme haircuts in the last six months, and while I like the boy cut, I'm growing my hair out again, and as it'll be hitting all the different lengths, I'll be able to see what fits me best.
I'm enjoying changing it up, but I realized that a gal shouldn't go about cutting her hair just for the sake of cutting it. Cut it to find something good.
Maybe your current cut is the cat's meow, the best for you. Anna Wintour, one of the (if not the) most influential fashion icons of our times, has worn her hair in its signature bob since she was fourteen. She is now 58. But a lot of girls and women live long and die hard for their wrong haircuts.
On the recent reality show Shear Genius, models were brought in each week for the contestants to cut and style their hair. And almost without fail every week, there was one lip-biting, eyebrow raising model who didn't want the contestant to cut three inches off her hair or put in highlights. Didn't they understand what would be done to their hair if they volunteered to appear on a hair stylist reality show?
And every time, when the contestant finally got their way, the cut was so much fresher and more flattering.
For me, though, I don't think I could ever find one 'til death 'do. I can't imagine that there is just one haircut that will look good on me, so I'll keep on cutting and growing and cutting again. And you know, I was thinking about going blonde...
