My Haircut

I am going to get my haircut today. My appointment is right after work.
Now I know what you're thinking - big deal.
But it is a big deal for me - it probably is for most people with my kind of hair.

So my crazy, kinky curls need specialized attention.
My usual experience at the hair salon includes a stylist raving about my curls - giving me a BAD cut, poofing my hair out to all eternity and charging me a month's wages for the debacle!

When I was younger I used to go home in tears every time. My Mom would let me cry a little, wash my hair again and then do her best to tame the beast.

Because of this repetitive trauma, I do my best to avoid getting my hair cut. I usually save-up all the money I get on my birthday and get my cut around that time.

The last time I got my hair cut was in January - it was on a whim. That's your first indicator of disaster. I walked into this salon and innocently enquired as to the cost. I was talked into a colour and cut by the stylist who swore up and down that he had experience with curly hair.

The colour job was awesome - the lady matched my own hair so perfectly that some people didn't even notice that I got rid of my blonde highlights, and almost 6 months later, I have no visible roots.
The cut however was another story. So the guy tells me he's going to give me "the Rat cut" - which is suppose to be state of the art. And promised not to take a lot of the length (if you know anything about how curly hair shrinks, you know how important the length issue is) So he takes my hair, divides it into sections and starts twisting them around his fingers and cuts up the length of the hair.
Yep - UP the length of the hair.
So I ended up with these insane layers that looked like antenna poking out of my head at weird angles all the way around.

Then he brushed it out (again if you know anything about curly hair, this is where you would utter a horrified gasp) and sent me on my merry way.

So 3 hours later, I'm sitting at my friend's house, and my hair has added about 3 inches to my height and about as much to my width as well! Don't forget the unusual alien antenna halo to finish off the look.

So suffice it to say, getting my haircut is a big deal.

Another weird thing I have noticed about when I gear-up to get my haircut (because it does take some psychological prepping) I start to fall in love with my hair, or get lots of compliments on it or something like that.

Take Today for example. In the interests of trying to get the best haircut, I styled my hair and left it down. I read in a magazine that you need to show a stylist your hair as you want to wear it - so they can get an idea for the look, feel and texture of it before getting to work. Usually by the time I get to the salon my hair has been in a bun all week. So Today, I left my hair down, and 5 people have complimented me on it today. Seriously 5 people!

I wonder if psychologically I am just noticing it more, to deter myself from getting the haircut? But then that backfires on me because I still get the haircut, but I have a falsely positive view of my hair before the cut which only increases the margin of disappointment.

Maybe it's just part of the whole "Change is hard for people" phenomenon.

I'll have to keep you posted as to my post haircut experience.