From the moment I was able to control my own hair, I was determined to grow my hair to the floor. I can't remember why this was my goal, but it was. So I began getting my hair trimmed regularly and making sure my hair was healthy.
Of course, when I was very young, it was easy because I just kept my natural hair, and most of the time put it up in a pony tail. Yet once I got into middle school, the pressure to dye your hair became very present, and I suddenly wanted to dye my hair more than anything. At this point my hair was pretty long, right past my collar bones.
My mom was always hesitant of me dying my hair, rightly so, since it can really damage your hair. So on a whim my mom allowed me to get behind the trend of ombre hair, and she bought me a "dye kit" aka bleach that would ruin the end of my hair. My best friend at the time and I were beyond excited to try this out. Everything turned out fine, just minor damage to the ends of my hair, but this started my obsession with hair dying that led to the mess of hair I have today.
After this, I dyed my hair with henna because it caused the least amount of damage. I spent just over two years dying my hair red with henna. Since henna is a more natural way of dying hair, it really weighs your hair down. After having red hair for so long that people honestly believed my natural hair color was red, I decided it was time for a change.
In my mind I thought I could just dye it to my natural light brown color. That was a completely wrong thought. Long story short, I ended up with dark brown hair, yellow hair, blue hair, brown hair, red hair, yellow hair, purple hair, and now a dusty pink hair color.
After the blue hair, which I bleached my hair by myself to get it to the blue color, I realized my hair was ruined. At this point my hair was close to my butt, and very weighed down by dye.
During this time, I went in to get my usual trim and my hair dresser was shocked, one half of my hair was two and half inches shorter then the other side. Why, you might ask? Because the bleach job I had done completely took off a chunk of my hair.
Even after that hair cut which my stylist took a large amount of my hair off, my hair was still unmanageable and just looked bad.
One day I was up at college and saw a sign for free hair cuts, included was a free goodie bag. I was mostly curious about the goodie bag, but I was also thinking about of the idea of just cutting my hair really short. I thought about it for about a week and decided I wanted to try it.
Everyone I knew was very against it, which I completely understood because everyone knew me as the girl with long hair. And honestly I was nervous on how I would feel after the fact too. Yet I went to the event, sat and waited for my turn to get my hair chopped. I knew my face was probably looking scared as ever because the women there kept reassuring me that it would look amazing.
In a matter of minutes I lost 8 inches of hair. It was shocking, but also extremely freeing. I ended up falling in love with the length and how easy it was to take care of. Also, I got so many compliments on it, and it came just in time for the warmer weather. I kept up the length for awhile, still dying it many different colors but trying to grow out my roots.
For anyone with long hair I can 100% recommend chopping your hair off. It makes you feel so grown up but also just so free.
Society tells women that long hair is something that is beautiful and a thing to strive for. Yet, honestly, I don't think I could ever go back to long hair now that I've seen all the benefits of having shorter hair. Plus if your isn't too overly dyed you can donate it to help patients who have lost their hair.
Don't let what society thinks is beautiful control your decisions, do something out of the ordinary and be you.
