We had an impromptu campfire on the beach Monday evening. Beautiful night, beautiful company. Just three of us: Tom and myself and a girlfriend. Her husband is working in the north central part of the state for a couple of weeks, but her little sister has been visiting from Kansas for the last 3 weeks or so.
She brought her sister 1/2 way home over the weekend where they met up with Mom and a brother for the hand-off. But, after that special time with family and all the extra hub-bub in their small home for the past month or so, it was very hard for her to return to an extremely quiet house Monday night. The dog and the wee babe doing somersaults in utero (this is one excited auntie!!) were good company . . . but just not quite enough.
So, when Tom called from a day in town to ask if I needed him to pick anything up (a requirement of every trip to town when you live so far out), I said, "Yes! Pick up 3 subs from Subway, some wine, and meet me at H's house. She's down and needs to be kidnapped."
When I called H to ask her, "What do you think about being kidnapped to the beach for a couple of hours?", she gasped and almost hollered into the phone, "That would be . . . DELICIOUS! I'LLGETMYCOAT!" ;) Sweet girl.
Oh! I cut my dreads off Sunday night! They were just getting to the bothersome point. A) they were getting uncomfortable to sleep on - felt like I was wearing small rollers to bed. And, B) they were getting h-e-a-v-y! I'd been thinking about doing it for a few days, but each time I'd tell myself, "No, you've worked on 'em so hard for 8 months - keep going!" And, really, in the end, I wanted to be able to nonchalantly mention, when I was 80, "Oh, yes, I had dread locks for three years." Sigh. Alas, 'twas not to be.
So, Sunday night when I was brushing my teeth before bed, I was looking at myself in the mirror and thought, "Oh, I'll just cut ONE off. Just to see how much 'non-dreaded' hair I'll have to work with." So, SNIP. One gone. Hm! "Okay, just one other." Snip! Hmmm!
I spit out the toothpaste, rinsed out my mouth, and went to work! Snip!Snip!Snip!Snip!Snip! Watch out: I was a crazy woman with scissors!
And, really, it felt SO liberating! I mean, how many of us have always had that dream of just ATTACKING our hair with scissors? Chopping it all off - just to be able to DO it? I know I have . . . and now I've fulfilled that dream!
I was left with about 2 - 2 1/2" of greasy hair. It felt SOOOO good to be able to scrub my fingers over EVERY INCH of my skull that had been unreachable due to the dreads, I can't tell you! Satisfied and it being about 1:30, I went to bed like that, waiting for Tom's reaction in the AM.
In the morning, Tom stumbled into the kitchen, looked at me . . . and frowned. "What . . . your hair . . . it's . . . like . . . breaking off . . . coming out of the dreads . . . in the front . . . uhhh . . . OH MY GAWD! You CUT 'em OFF?!!"
After he left for the day (he's been working up at the end of the Trail . . . about 80 miles away), I washed my hair, massaging, massaging, massaging my scalp. Ahhhhhhhhh. Heaven.
Then, I took good hair-cutting scissors to it, just wanting to make it presentable enough until I could get an appointment to have it properly cut. But, one snip led to another, and . . . voila! Forty-five minutes later, I'd given myself a fairly decent pixie cut!
I actually had a headache for most of Monday and into Tuesday. Just a dull one . . . like my scalp was adjusting to not having all that weight constantly pulling at it . . . which I think it was!
Anyway, I'm happy with my new haircut, and I feel like "me" again (although I hadn't been aware that the dreads WEREN'T totally me ' cause they felt - emotionally - just fine, but . . . .). 'Course, now I'm living with the "you look totally butch" self-criticism every time I look in the mirror that I don't have a cute shirt, makeup, and earrings on (i.e. every time I've LOOKED in a mirror since Monday night!). Sigh.
If that woman at the soda fountain hadn't asked my mom, right in front of me when I was in third grade and in response to the pin I was wearing that read 'Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman', "Why is he wearing that pin?" . . . I'd not be the maladjusted woman I am today . . . always afraid she'll be taken for a man. ;)
Loved your post! Are you going to insert a picture of your new haircut? It's funny, my Mom cut my hair off in second grade because she was sick of all the tangles (and my crying over her ripping them out. After that people thought I was a boy sometimes, too. What we girls have to go through with our hair. I just went to the barber and cut about 6 inches off mine last week. Take care!
ReplyDeleteHoney, you ain't NEVER gonna be mistaken for a man!!
ReplyDeleteYou really should have posted the picture you sent me yesterday. I could not believe you had done the haircut yourself. Excellent job, you beautiful, maladjusted woman!
Melissa, THANKS! It's so rewarding to hear that from people when I think I've made a "blah, nothing to say" post!
ReplyDeleteAnd, to both you and Mom, yep, I'm posting pictures right now. I'd done the written part of the post in the comfort of one of the livingroom chairs on my laptop . . . now I'm here at my desk (where the pictures are) and can insert them.
So, I wonder which is more "damaging" to tender psyches . . . a girl being called a boy or a boy being called a girl? :)
Yay, pictures!
ReplyDeleteRight off, I'd say a boy being called a girl.
Great shot of the campfire on the beach by the way.
I will apologize right here and now for never dressing you in ruffles. Perhaps that would have solved the problem?
But I ask, does my daughter look "totally butch" or like a man? PU-LEEZE!
I think your hair looks great! Besides, when you are 80, no one will care how long you had them...just that you had them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I totally understand why you were wearing that pin....how did your friend happen to have both a dog and a baby doing somersaults in utero???? Maybe I shouldn't ask. ;)
I think your new haircut looks great!
ReplyDeleteLike the new haircut. But then, I never was a fan of "dreads"...sorry. And yes, you will never look butch. :)
ReplyDeleteYou da woman Chicken Mama....I love your new hair!
ReplyDeleteI cut my own all the time now and it is a great feeling to get done and actually like my haircut and know that it cost me NOTHING (not even a tip!)
As for looking totally butch, yeah, I've seen a few pics of myself and thought the same thing, but hey let people think what they want--the people who know and love you know that hair doesn't make the woman! :-)
dearest non-dreaded friend. welcome back to the world of those who had and now don't. isn't it great?! your new do is DARLING. i wish i had been brave enough to cut my hair so short...you have a lovely, symmetrical face. its perfect. may we please dinner and wine soon?
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with your hair!!
ReplyDeleteCutting one's own hair... I always feel like I've fused Samson and Delilah together and cheated the story somehow. Brava on your gleeful scissor-attack!
ReplyDeleteYour story about the pin 'minds me of the one I wore in Jr. High & High School that read, "Ordain women or stop baptising them." I was rather startled one day, on a city bus, to have a concerned older gent ask me, "Um, why are you against baptising women?" Oh dear.
Love it! Looks great on you! Good for you for growing the dreads and then being true to yourself when you were done :)
ReplyDeleteBTW -- I was called a boy too when I was about seven. Still remember how mortified I was. Of course, it was the early 80s and I was wearing brown corduroys (wait, I still wear those) and a plaid shirt (hmmm.... still wear those too.) Crap. Gotta go get me some cute earrings and some lip gloss!
I love your hair cut . I have mine that short .
ReplyDeleteJean R