haircut
I got a haircut. Since this is the first time in 12 years that scissors have been applied to my hair, it's a big enough deal that I'm posting about it all over social media.
Before:
After:
The color contrast between the before and after shots looks as though I also colored my hair, but I didn't. That's just a result of different lighting. However, the significantly lighter color at the end of my hair before the cut is real. It's not anything I did on purpose, just something that happened due to time, sun, and perhaps most importantly, chlorine from the pool. I think the ends had gotten much lighter since I started swimming, though I'm not certain.
I've been contemplating a haircut for years. I finally stopped wavering and did it because my long hair was taking major damage from the pool chemicals, and I was tired of combing out huge tangles after every swim. Months ago I decided that I was going to go for it as soon as the weather got warm enough that I wouldn't miss the hair around my neck. Then there was some dithering and second-guessing, but last week I gave myself a deadline, and now it's done.
It feels weird. When I look in the mirror, I'm not convinced it's me. I keep bunching up the ends at the back of my neck and feeling how little is there. Not even really enough to pull into a ponytail. I know from haircuts in the long-ago past that it's going to be seriously strange when I wash my hair and my hands close on nothing.
Those of you who haven't seen me recently may be thinking that the glasses seem like another new feature. I started wearing contact lenses when I was maybe 11, and for most of my life I put them in every day, wearing glasses only in the privacy of home at the beginning and end of the day. Over the past few years, my eyes have become less tolerant of wearing contacts all day, and my contact usage has decreased. Since there are many days when I don't leave my house or see anyone who doesn't live in my house, I had switched to a pattern of only putting in the contacts when I would be seeing other people.
I got this pair of glasses in the fall, and I liked the way they look so much that I started wearing them for some social occasions. A couple of months ago, I realized that I was only putting in my contacts for the purpose of going to a few specific recurring events with groups of people who'd never seen me in glasses. I decided that was a silly sort of vanity considering that I was beginning to prefer the glasses look. I wore my glasses to those events, and incidentally, almost nobody commented on the change. I thought there might still be some circumstances in which I would prefer to wear contacts, but so far I haven't worn the lenses once since the day I decided I didn't have to put them in.
So I am now a short-haired glasses wearer. I think it's going to take a while for my self-image to adjust.
Before:
After:
The color contrast between the before and after shots looks as though I also colored my hair, but I didn't. That's just a result of different lighting. However, the significantly lighter color at the end of my hair before the cut is real. It's not anything I did on purpose, just something that happened due to time, sun, and perhaps most importantly, chlorine from the pool. I think the ends had gotten much lighter since I started swimming, though I'm not certain.
I've been contemplating a haircut for years. I finally stopped wavering and did it because my long hair was taking major damage from the pool chemicals, and I was tired of combing out huge tangles after every swim. Months ago I decided that I was going to go for it as soon as the weather got warm enough that I wouldn't miss the hair around my neck. Then there was some dithering and second-guessing, but last week I gave myself a deadline, and now it's done.
It feels weird. When I look in the mirror, I'm not convinced it's me. I keep bunching up the ends at the back of my neck and feeling how little is there. Not even really enough to pull into a ponytail. I know from haircuts in the long-ago past that it's going to be seriously strange when I wash my hair and my hands close on nothing.
Those of you who haven't seen me recently may be thinking that the glasses seem like another new feature. I started wearing contact lenses when I was maybe 11, and for most of my life I put them in every day, wearing glasses only in the privacy of home at the beginning and end of the day. Over the past few years, my eyes have become less tolerant of wearing contacts all day, and my contact usage has decreased. Since there are many days when I don't leave my house or see anyone who doesn't live in my house, I had switched to a pattern of only putting in the contacts when I would be seeing other people.
I got this pair of glasses in the fall, and I liked the way they look so much that I started wearing them for some social occasions. A couple of months ago, I realized that I was only putting in my contacts for the purpose of going to a few specific recurring events with groups of people who'd never seen me in glasses. I decided that was a silly sort of vanity considering that I was beginning to prefer the glasses look. I wore my glasses to those events, and incidentally, almost nobody commented on the change. I thought there might still be some circumstances in which I would prefer to wear contacts, but so far I haven't worn the lenses once since the day I decided I didn't have to put them in.
So I am now a short-haired glasses wearer. I think it's going to take a while for my self-image to adjust.