New Year, New Hair

And, to tell the truth, I'm not very happy about it. Although, on the upside, it will probably end up saving me a lot of money.

Allow me to explain.

I've been going to the same, ruinously expensive, hairstylist for several years now. I like it because he does some sort of fancy coloring process that takes about three minutes for highlights, instead of the usual half-hour of noxious chemicals, and I've always gotten a good haircut, even if he does tend to overstyle it. For the last couple of years it's been a little trickier to arrange my appointments, because the salon is in Berkeley and I am now in San Mateo, but those facts and fear of the new kept me loyal.

But this week I was off from work and, since I was headed East anyway for a party, I decided to combine the trip and made an appointment for the afternoon on New Years Eve. Feeling like something different, I suggested a shorter cut, maybe just to the top of the jawline, with some short layers around the face. The stylist nodded, played with my hair a bit, and said a few things in stylist-ese that I agreed to because that's what I do. Besides, I trusted his judgement, right?

Well.



There is a problem. The problem is that I have had this hairstyle once before, for the entire duration of 2001, when I was growing my hair out from the extremely short style I had had all the way through high school and college. It was a transitional period, and it was not my best time ever, looks-wise. And now I have paid a large amount of money to have it reproduced. You can imagine how I feel about this.

Now, it is possible that I may be wrong, that it is only my associations with the look that are making me dislike it and I will be able to style it so that it looks, in some way, stylish. And it will, of course, grow out, which I am seriously looking forward to.

And when it does, one thing is for damn sure: I am not taking it back to that place.