Cutting Loose
I realized, after cutting of more than 10 inches of hair off of my head for the fifth time in my life, that somehow this always happens as either a reaction to or a harbinger of major changes in my life:
1. Freshman year of college, 1990: A high-end salon did a charity hair cut thing in a dorm on campus. $10 hair cuts. I was still sporting the 80’s female mullet (how it pains me to write that), and it was time for a change. I was in college now, for crying out loud. My friend Elizabeth and I ventured down campus to the upperclassman dorm. There were like 7 stylists, and chairs–no mirrors or anything. Chop. I think somewhere I still have a piece of that haircut. That was around 7 inches.
2. First year of graduate school, Arizona, 1996: a month at 100+ degrees convinced me this time. I was in TA training, living in a studio apartment, getting ready to teach for the first time. My friend Deborah had found a salon she liked in downtown Phoenix. She took me, and the stylists were awed by my choice to cut it all off. I kept it short the whole time I was in graduate school, partly because it was hot (well, mostly because it was hot), and partly because I was holding onto an identity.
3. After I got married. I got married in 2002, but cut the hair in 2003 when I knew we were moving to Colorado and I was going to be unemployed. One of my students who was a hair dresser at a local salon did it. This was my first donation to Locks of Love.
4. After I had Claire. I had been in bed for 7 weeks on strict bedrest, and my hair was one of the biggest hassles. I was only allowed a shower every other day, and since I was laying down, it got knotted, matted, and just downright unruly. Cutting it and donating it after she was born was really a catharsis of that whole bad experience.
5. This time. I kept my hair long for my deployment to the Ice for practical purposes, but I was glad to have it from a comfort perspective. It sort of symbolized a lot of “old growth” that I needed to get away from,a nd I feel better for it.
And now, I’ll probably grow it out again. I feel like I’ve started a nice change in motion, starting with my trip to the Ice. This is the year.