I'm going to go ahead and start off this article that this is in NO WAY directed at any single person. Many, many, MANY people asked me:
"Why did you cut your hair off?"
And some people straight up asked me to my face:
"Did you cut your hair as a way of you saying F*** you to women's standards?"
or my personal favorite.
"Did you cut your hair because you're a dike now"/"So since you're gay are you like trying to be like a dude now?"

Yes, hello, let me introduce myself.

My name is Carolyn and I am gay.
I love everything about hair and makeup and am even okay to admit I probably have a severe addiction to eye shadow and liquid lipstick.
I love all things Broadway and like to pretend I am performing in Wicked when no one is home.
AND I love wearing dresses and even more life to twirl around when wearing them.
BUT I always wear a pair of shorts underneath every single time I wear a dress because I can not seem to ever sit like a "lady".
And, about 2 months after I came out I cut off all my hair.

(I ended up going BACK to the stylist because I wasn't satisfied with my hair than in this picture so it is now shorter than this picture but ANYWHO)

Yes, I am one of many many stereotypes who cut off all their hair after coming out.

But that's not the whole reason why I did this.

Growing up I always LOVED the idea of getting a pixie cut. Ever since middle school I always wanted and talked about having one. All of my friends knew how badly I wanted it. When I would ask my family they always told me no because I have such curly hair it would turn into an afro.

When I got to high school I still wanted to cut off all my hair but I dated someone who was super controlling and actually wouldn't let me.

My hair has always been incredibly, tangibly hard to manage, and "boogerish" as my mom would call it.

If I ever wanted to style my hair in any way it would take me about an hour and a half sometimes close to two hours to do. And this was to blow dry it and give it a simple style like flat ironing it.

So most days I just let it air dry and threw it up in a bun until it was half way dry and that's how I would get curls like you saw in my picture above- which would take me like 3 minutes to do. Not even, it takes me like 45 seconds to do a bun.

I'm starting Cosmetology school in a few weeks and it says in our handbook that we are to come to school with our hair styled every single day.

And one day I just realized HOW EARLY I would have to get up to style my hair for two hours every morning AND do my makeup. I would have to get up at 5 am. And there is NO POINT when all I could do is just cut it off.

My hair has always been high maintenance and it constantly got annoying.

When I moved to Florida I got hit with just how INCREDIBLY hot it constantly was. So naturally, my hair was consistently up anyways because if not I was continuously sweating.

When I moved to Florida I broke up with this super controlling person and I truly became free. This person constantly would tell me how to wear my hair, what color to do, and how not to cut it, etc, etc.

So naturally when I moved to Florida I finally felt free and I finally felt me and happiness again.

Which also happened several months later when I came out.

Although lots of grievances came with myself coming out -- I also had never felt so free to be me in my entire life than I do right now.

I had realized how amazing it feels to be me, to be free.

So one day I woke up and decided I was going to do something I had always wanted to do and just couldn't.

I went to my school and cut off all of my hair. It was the most nerve-wracking experience of my entire life. And I loved every bit of it.

I wanted it to be even shorter than it is currently right now -- I wanted to shave and buzz a quarter of my head. But since I haven't started hair school yet, I didn't have the money to go to the salon every week and have them shave me. But I'm still considering it for when myself and all my peers can literally do my hair every single day I got to school. Which let me just point out how dangerous that is.

Anyways.

Yes, coming out and finally feeling free and finally being my true self had a lot to do with it.

But it also had every bit to do with the fact that I always wanted to and couldn't, I was being controlled and told not to, my hair took TOO long to style and it's literally so hot in Florida.

In the end, I love my hair -- I feel confident in my hair.

Sure there are still days where it doesn't do what I want it to do but who doesn't still have those days?

I love my hair and I love the way it makes me feel.

A girl does not need long hair to make her any more of a beautiful woman.
What makes a woman beautiful is herself.
And no one can take yourself and your self-confidence away from you.

To donate your hair please go to:
http://pantene.com/en-us/experience-main-section2/...