I am always trying to grow my hair out. I like the idea of having a waterfall of curls cascading down my back, ala Merida from Brave, or an elven princess. Though actually, come to think of it, I don’t remember any curly elves in the Lord of the Rings movies. Regardless, it’s more of a romantical whim than an actual goal, because eventually practicality takes over, and I get a haircut.
Longer hair means more styling work, and I like to keep things as low-effort as possible. But also, and this is the main (mane?) problem: it takes curly hair twice as long to get visibly longer than straight hair. When my hair has in the past been waist-length when wet, it’s still somewhere below shoulder-length when dry. To look waist-length, I’d probably have to grow it down to my knees. (I’ve ranted in the past about the impossibility of Merida’s hair in Brave.)
But I still secretly want to be an elven princess. A couple times in my life, for fancy occasions, I have straightened my hair via ironing. And yes, I’ll admit it does look amazing. Almost worth the 3 hours it takes, and the inevitable headache. When I do that, the difference in length between curly and straight hair is just shocking. I am constantly startled by my own hair brushing my elbows.
The annoying part is when well-meaning people compliment my straight hair, telling me how amazing it looks, and that I “should do that every day!” I do appreciate these compliments, but they also frustrate me, because 1) my hair also looks great when it’s curly, 2) ironing takes a ton of time and the aforementioned headache, and 3) heat treatments are quite damaging to hair and shouldn’t be done frequently.
To be fair, part of it is my own fault. When I only ever straighten my hair for fancy occasions, that implies that in order to be fancy, my hair must be straight. So, I have decided that I will no longer straighten my hair for events. If I ever do it again, it will be on a random day out of boredom, and once in a blue moon. My hair will be curly for any future events I attend.
So, long story short, I cut my hair again. My hair got super long during Covid lockdown, but of course, it still appeared to be somewhere past shoulder-length. So I did a “big chop,” as the kids say. My hair is now above my shoulders, wet and dry. It looks cute (I think). and it’s easy to take care of. While I can still have waterfall-hair in my daydreams, for real life I’ll keep things practical.