A Big Change

From early adulthood onwards, I have this love/hate relationship with my hair.  I will often go through phases where I want long, then short, then long hair again.  It was during one of these short to long cycles that I decided to grow it out long enough that it could be donated to a place that could use it to make wigs for cancer patients.  I was mainly due to the actions of one person, my sister Noel.

Noel was born almost 12 years after I was and it was definitely a surprise but a good one.  Then, when she was three, she got sick and we got terrible news: it was cancer.  She went through all the treatments and dealt with a lot of the usual side effects, including hair loss.  It hurt her a lot to deal with the side effects but she missed her hair the most.  As her big sister, it hurt.  There was nothing that I could do do make it better.

So, this past weekend I decided that it was time for me to cut off the long hair I had been growing for a few years.  I divided my hair into two ponytails and let the stylist snipe them both off.  For those that haven't done this before, it is so freeing to have that much hair cut off.  Once my hair was cut to the style I wanted, I went a step further.  I changed my normal brown hair to red.  The hair that was cut off my head measured 12 inches, which should help make a great wig for someone fighting cancer.

The reaction that I got to this big change from both my jobs was almost as fun as getting the haircut itself.  My students' reactions went from "Oh my god!" to "Why did you cut it?!" to "You look like a boy." (Kindergartners, gotta love them.)  My retail coworkers were a bit more subdued but not by much.  It is really hard for people to believe that I would go and do something so extreme.

Just remember, it is hair and it grows back :-)

 My hair before the cut