Cutting it (the hair)

[Irulan]

Haircut is fabulous. Went to a totally new person (gulp) but I'd seen her work on some of my friends' hair and it was very nice. She LISTENED TO ME - how nice! My last hairstylist was good but I got so tired of arguing about hair color with him. For what I was paying, he should have bowed and just done it.

She did a wedge cut on the back, slightly tapered the sides, put in low lights to calm down the blonde highlights and showed me how use some styling spray to add in texture. It is amazing how it lightened up my face. I think having longer hair dragged my face down. I have a gorgeous (not) zipper scar on my throat from my cervical fusion, so that doesn't help with the wrinkles. She said shorter hair draws the eye up. Since I don't have a lot of wrinkles around my eyes that's a good thing.

Here's the exciting part - I actually have a little bit of wave! My formerly stick straight hair must have gotten shocked from the hot flashes & started to bend a little. Of course, cutting off about 10 inches helped - but I've NEVER had wave in my hair.

Now the part comes where people see the "new me" and I'm always a little reticent about that. I hate having a fuss made over me & really prefer to just blend in.

Sounds fabulous!

on a similar note, I took the plunge for color a few months ago. I've had short hair for ....years... and it's been going a beautiful salt-and-pepper. I decided I just wasn't ready for that and went to an auburn-ish brown with purple highlights.

[PamNY]

I wonder if the link between hair length and age is stronger in the US, I've never thought about it much or heard it mentioned here. Young Norwegian girls do tend to have longer hair than adult women, but I reckoned it was mostly a fashion thing among teenagers, and that they were the only ones that had the time to tend to waist-length hair :-) Certainly among young adults it's quite common to not have very long hair.

I have several friends who have cut their long hair and look gorgeous, it can be very flattering. I know it's tough to cut it, but I'm pretty sure you'll like it!

I hadn't heard of hair length and age connection and I'm in the US. As a practical matter, my grey hairs are more curly and flyaway than the others, so now that my hair is long it looks a bit unkempt. I'm beginning to understand why older ladies often have short, curly hair styles.

[OakLeaf]

Now that I think about it, it's been a few years, but when we travelled in Austria and northern Italy, buzz cuts were very popular with women of a certain age.

[TrekDianna]

I have curly hair and have it long right now. I'm pretty sure that as I get more white, I'm going to have to cut it or end up looking like one of the old wiches in Macbeth...... My white ones (so far) are thicker and wilder than the rest.

That's me, but wavy hair almost to my waist. I have a white streak on each side. I like them. I like my hair. I even like the witches in Macbeth.

[Eden]

I imagine myself looking like this in 10 years..... if it happens, it's getting cut....

[redrhodie]

Glad you like your haircut! As I mentioned in your other hair thread, I've been through this. In my experience, your hair is going to get even better in a couple of months, when your thyroid levels out. My hair also has some wave now when it was always poker straight. My hair stylist says she's seen this happen from medicine before. She suggested that I flat iron it, and I was like, No Way! I like the curls! And my color came back. It's pretty crazy. I look back at pictures and can't believe how sick I looked before I finally got on levothyroxine.

At this point my hair is almost shoulder length and really healthy. It was to my bra strap before this journey, but I kind of like it better this length.

Good luck!

[Pax]

I love the idea of a bike ride, to put yourself in perspective.

IMO, it is your hair and wear what makes you feel comfortable.

I had hair down to my waste until I was about 35, (I'm 52 now) then cut it to shoulder length. Have been there ever since. My hair is very wavy and when I had it short, it always felt like it looked like I rolled out of bed.

I'm on the fence on what to do with it now.

I've always wanted "bed head"! But I have perfect hair (according to my friends), it's super thick and lays, well, perfectly.

Guess it's that wanting what you haven't got thing but I've always thought tousled bed head would be awesome.

[GLC1968]

I imagine myself looking like this in 10 years..... if it happens, it's getting cut....

That is kind of what I look like! (though I still have all my teeth and only one cat)

Hair products are definitely my friend. I *hated* my hair when I was a kid (before hair gel was common place) but now, a quick swipe of the right curl-encouraging product through my wet hair and I'm good to go!

[Eden]

I have two cats, but most of my teeth (I'm missing two molars congenitally - my mom and grandmom don't have them either)

I hated my hair as a kid too - from about the time I was a teenager it was just wild and frizzy/wavy. I had it very short for a long time. Now I've discovered the joys of no shampoo..... I have thick, dry, curly hair. I stopped using shampoo completely a couple of years ago and now just use conditioner and do a salt scrub for my scalp every week or so. Works wonders for my hair type. I use a little Uncle Harry's as leave in conditioner/gel. It's one of the only things I've been able to find with no silicone, which doesn't do much for my hair and won't wash out with just water. My white hairs that are coming in unfortunately don't appear to be curly so much as thick and kinky. I'm not sure they'll be tameable.

[GLC1968]

I do the no shampoo thing too! I've used a lot of different methods/formulas and have settled on the Co-Wash from Ouidad. It leaves my hair feeling fresh, awesome and not the least bit dry. It's not cheap though.

For gel, the only one I found that is 'cone' free that still has good hold without being crunchy is the Curl Quencher styling gel from Ouidad. I have the same problem in that so many 'curl' products contain silicone or dimethecone and if you don't use shampoo, that stuff builds up something awful!

[Pax]

I wsh my hair with Dr. Bronners, or Suave, or bar soap when it's short, it's all the same to my weird hair... only things that works differently is Pert (the stuff with cream rinse in it) makes my hair look like it's been washed in Crisco.

[shootingstar]

Dogmama, I was surprised to learn from a hairstylist that I had a strong top backhair cowlick at the crown of my head. I cannot get my hair to swirl properly to cover up a small bare spot when hair gets too long: another incentive why I need a haircut that has some layers.

Yea, sure I always wondered about naturally wavy hair to get that sexy tousled hair look ...but only wishing that for 1-2 days. Then back to liking smooth shine of straight, dark hair...which requires some precision haircuts right down to .25 millimetre and cleanliness. Specks of dust on black hair...it not becoming.