Hair history

  Me, summer 1979, aged about 2 
  Originally uploaded by dynamist.

This is the only baby picture I have of myself. I can remember that shortly after this was taken, my mother had all of my hair chopped off into what I thought - even as a toddler - was a hideously ugly, Dutch boy haircut.

It was my first emotionally charged hair experience, but not the last.

Cutting my hair short has been much more gut-wrenching than I thought it would be, for reasons too numerous to detail here. Now I am determined to grow it back out, and relieved that my hair does grow quickly, but frustrated at the horrific in-between stage. There are too many headbands and hair clips in my life.

What was your first emotional hair experience?

Comments

[raker]

I liked the photos of you with short hair! Why did you change your mind?

My most traumatic haircut was thrust upon me the day before we flew to Italy to get married in 2004. "Jade" obviously wasn't listening when I told her I was getting married the following week, because when she cropped it so short that you could see my scalp, and I mentioned that I thought it was a little short and hoped I could still wear my little head dress thing, she dropped her scissors in shock and mumbled something about me saying it would be "NEXT MONTH".

Although it's usually incredibly annoying, luckily for me my hair grows really quickly, so I mostly got away with it: http://www.simonandcatriona.co.uk/Galleries/wedding/WeddingOfficial/pages/0026.htm

Other than that one off - I wouldn't normally mind having a really short haircut, I was just thinking about the wedding photos - the only other traumatic haircut I have had was an unrequested "ironic" mullet foisted on me a couple of years ago. Again, it didn't take too long to grow out, but it really didn't work.

[Susan]

My first real hair trauma was in eighth grade...I was so excited to go to a professional salon, rather than Aunt Dolores' basement beauty parlor, especially since I have naturally curly hair, I thought they could better deal with it. Wrong! The man had no idea what he was doing, and I ended up with hair an inch long, sticking out in all directions! I was so upset, I refused to have my hair professionally cut for four years!

[Monica]

I had longer hair than any other girl around. I was known for my long hair, down to my butt. Until 6th grade. My mother decided I needed something easier to care for and marched me off to the hairdresser, who chopped off my ponytail as I cried, and made me look like a boy. I don't think I've ever really gotten over it, silly as that may be.

[Katie]

My worst hair trauma was somewhere around the first or second grade: my mother INSISTED on me having a Dororthy Hamill cut against my will. I was in tears before I even hit the stylist's chair. I think that was the last time poor Mom ever tried to have a say so about my hair.

The one thing that disturbs me about 70s-era looks trickling back into style is not about the clothes, but rather, is based around my deep fear that some magazine editor or designer will decide "the Dorothy Hamill" is back "in." *shudders at the thought*

[Jackie Danicki]

Katie, my mother did the SAME THING to me! Except she never backed off when it came to dictating how my hair would look. Ever. I am serious when I say that these experiences could be deeply traumatic. Something is stolen from us.

Raker, I really like the way your hair looked at your wedding! (Also loved the other pics - Kitty is a gorgeous baby!) May explain my reasons for growing my hair back out in a future post. Gotta get my head round it first, which could take a while...

[raker]

Thanks Jackie - we're rather fond of her too!

Hope things are OK with you!!

[Kate]

Mine was two summers ago. Short on top longer at the front and back - truly horrendous! It's no exaggeration to say that I cried (and wore hats everyday!) for two weeks. It got so bad that my other half offered to pay for extensions, but it turned out it was too short.

Like you my hair does grow quickly and my hairdresser was great at keep it in shape during the growing it out stages, but the whole thing was totally traumatic!

[lulululu]

Third on the unwanted Dorothy Hamill. Before that, the night before special occasions I had to sleep at night wearing foam rollers with plastic fasteners: so uncomfortable I could barely sleep. The next day I had lovely "banana curls" aka 2 feet of ringlets all around my head. I didn't want the Dorothy Hamill, but at least I could then sleep at night.

[Susan]

lulululu, you had to sleep in the pink foam rollers too? Mom always made me wear a blue ruffled hair net over mine to go to bed...lovely, to say the least :) Every Easter and Christmas...

[ricki]

Oh, my! You girls are all too young to remember the days when we went to bed with our hair rolled up on beer cans! Talk about your sleepless nights. Growing up, every haircut was traumatic. My stick-straight hair suggested Dutch boy to anyone with scissors in hand, many tears to follow. As a result, I spent 30 or so years with long (which is not to say flowing) tresses. Thank God for the new wave of stylists who have learned to sculpt hair.

[Elizabeth]

Even tho Jane Fonda was not popular with most conservatives even today, her shag haircut in the '70's was admired by many, including me. My hair was long, and my mother hated it. I had already learned to avoid her when she went to the beauty parlor on Thursdays (she had my eyebrows dyed the last time I went with her...imagine fair skin, pale blonde and blue eyes with black brows!). But my cousin had the shag haircut and I wanted it...2 weeks before entering my sophomore year in high school. So, with mother's blessing we went to the same place my cousin used to cut her hair....it looked Awful! Took years to trust anyone with hair cutting scissors or razors ever again!

[lulululu]

ah Susan, kindred spirit! Knowing I was not alone in pink foam roller torture has probably shaved a year or so off my therapy bill.

Equally emotional and awful: college haircut freshman year. Supercuts, all we could afford. Three of us went together. We all ended up with the same Girl Mullet, though we asked for three diffferent haircuts. This was emotional because I was paying for a haircut with my own money, making my own, fully independent decision on the style. Oh, how naive I was to think that because I asked for a style that I would actually get it. The person with the scissors has the true power.

[Heather]

I actually got Alopecia in the eighth grade where the immune system mistakenly targets hair cells and causes hair loss. I went through years of having bald spots and undergoing treatments to get them to grow. It's been years since I've had to deal with the issue, and my hair loss was never as extreme as most cases, but what's funny is I still get emotional about a bad haircut or a bad hair day... Isn't it amazing how much emphasis society puts on having the perfect hair, from hair plugs and procedures for men to extensions and compulsive hair dying for women. When you step back it's really so trivial isn't it??

[Gloria]

1 of the ladies at my dad's company would cut my hair off EVERYTIME I visited. *shudders*

another traumatic experience: cutting my own hair during sleep. I woke up and saw that a pair of scissors were next to me, but didn't think much of it. I went to the bathroom, was mindlessly running my fingers through my hair, and saw chunks of hair falling off.

scary!!