Oh my.

Yesterday, for the first time in well over a year, I got my hair cut. In Texas, I had my bangs trimmed once. Other than that, my last hair cut was this one. Notice Amaris' apparent age:

I have that picture dated as May 2007. It's been a while. My hair had gotten unruly and out of control.

Seriously.

It was bad. It was past the point of frumpiness. I could ONLY ponytail it. Which, hey, I like ponytails. But I don't like them THAT much. I want SOME variety. And it was totally unhealthy. I found myself studying my split ends daily. Gross. This is me fresh out of bed Thursday morning, "contemplating" (okay, okay, deciding just how much I DIDN'T like...) the hair cut Mark had chosen for me several days prior. I mean, I liked it. But I felt it was possibly a little too.. How do I put this? Texas for me. I've had enough Texas. That 6 month dosage pretty much Texased me out and filled me to capacity. I was unsure I wanted one of their clearly identifiable BIG hairdos. I've never been much for "big hair".

So I changed my mind. perused my other options and settled. This was a hard task for me because I am notoriously indecisive about these sorts of things. I want a "cute" hairstyle, but I also CRAVE something low-maintenance and ponytail friendly. Yes, despite our differences lately, I still love my old friend the ponytail. She's been faithful and good to me and I can't complain... much. If these were labeled clockwise from the top left as 1, 2, 3 and 4... #3 would be the first to go. The model looked too much like my former neighbor who pretty much was one of the most hateful people ever. Plus it's bordering on what I like to call the "cyclops" style. Now, I'm not knocking "side" bangs. Hell, I sported them myself for a while, and they are cute. But I HATE when they cover an entire eye. That's just too much. And irritating. #4 would be next to go because while I do like the layers, I have no idea what the front looks like and I need some sort of visual on what is happening to my forehead. I have a weird scar thing up there that I like to keep covered as much as I can. Plus, my bangs hadn't completely grown out yet and Mark likes them, so I needed to figure out something to do with them that didn't mean going bang-less. Not right yet, anyways.

So the toss up was between, for me, #1 and #2. Which are almost the same haircut. The model in #1 has a horridly annoying face, so I used a black pen to scribble her out and "un-distract" myself. (And Mark). Mark announced that he hated #2. I couldn't figure out why. To me, it looked almost identical to #1! So I asked. He didn't like the "flippy" ends. Okay, fine. #1 it was.

So at noon I was showering and washing the tangled mess of hair that I'd been loathing for months, and by one I was out the door. I said I'd come home a new woman.

My stylist was pleasant and friendly. She took her time and flat ironed the crap out of my hair. Which, I'll admit, I'm too lazy to do. I'll flat iron it, but probably not to the same extent that she did - she did it in sections and layers and with a REALLY expensive iron. After I've washed her products out of my hair, and it returns to it's usual unruly, wavy ways, I'll probably blow dry it with a round brush and then run my lower-class flat iron through it a few times. It'll be a little bigger, but it'll be easier and less time consuming. Which, when you're impatient like I am, is priceless. The most important thing is that it looks and feels WORLDS better and I am elated. My head feels lighter and my hair feels healthy again. She took off about 7" after all was said and done. Holy jeez.