new thread
*original message*
Life’s never really meant very much, y’know the story it’s always just been there. You did school, you got hitched, you got a job, you got fired etc. etc. and that’s about it. Yeah I know dull and unimaginative sums it all up :-)
So why, hair mid-back and on it’a way to my hips (I really like that thought !) has life started becoming so meaningful and precious ? What is it about this darned wretched stuff ?
On the other hand if one could capture it’s magic formula and market it in bottles along the lines of “A Rare Blend of Fine Scottish Mists” or “London Fogs Herbal Extract ” we’d all be consultant millionaires overnight ! ;-)
*end original message*
I know exactly how you feel. The way I had my hair kept me happy and gave me an inspiration to live. But I just got a trim 2 days ago and now I hate the way my hair looks and I wish it would be the same. Losing my satisfaction in my hair was 2 times worse than when I broke my leg and couldn't make the football team.
Yeah I don't understand it either ! :-) And I agree ‘inspiration to live’ is a nice way of putting it.
You ought to talk to “Hair Religion” on here about this as well as he’s helped me a lot recently. I can’t remember the details except that I wondered why I was feeling so much more confident lately and he said, which was very very true that you have to learn to listen to the person inside you. What it is HE wants. I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about for a while but weirdly it eventually started to make some sense as I think he was referring to one’s feelings for long hair. I think he’s right and perhaps this is what long hair is all about ? At least for me it feels that way nowadays.
But I think I’ve been a bit lucky as I’ve always been able to get in touch with them very easily because I’m plain nutty crazy over Golden Retriever dogs and never mind admitting it because they always touch me very deeply every time. Yet why it’s so much harder to recognise feelings when they’re to do with long hair I don’t know. Feelings are feelings I’ve always thought ?
Whatever it is I do know that if you’re lucky enough to hit on that “right” something in life pets football anything, doesn't matter what it is that makes you really happy and goes on and on doing so - constantly by your side despite all the inevitable s**t that always seems to come your way, then to me rightly or wrongly it's plain crazy possibly even dangerous (?) to ignore it. The meaning of the phrase “the best things in life are free” is even beginning to penetrate my thick skull (!) because for me it is the best and perhaps why by contrast life in the past was always so dull ? I guess nobody in their right mind can deliberately ignore or worse still ditch their best “friend” be it a human, an animal or a feeling....though I do know I couldn’t get rid of my feelings for long hair even if I was stupid enough to try !!
As for your unhappy experience with the trim I know what you mean too ! It was the first time shortly after it had all become really important to me that I got ‘caught’ as well because it made me damned angry and real upset for days afterwards. So I simply stopped going which is perhaps what you might start considering if it’s made you feel this unhappy ? You’ll find that that thought alone can help ease things a lot while you’re growing out again. The point is I thought that if this is the best an expensive, dumb, so-called expert employee can do then even with my eyes shut I’ve really got to struggle to do worse ! And that’s how it turned out as once I’d got the hang of everything it was really very satisfying indeed because not only was “I” in control of the whole situation at last (!) but best of all there were no more months miserably waiting for it to grow back again even if I did make a slight mistake.
At that particular time I definitely didn’t have the courage to grow it long so instead, and because I wanted to minimise the Awkward Stage as much as possible I decided to buy a special pair of hairdresser’s thinning scissors, you know the ones that have very large teeth that are spread wide apart ? Although my hair is medium fine and very straight they worked just great ! They allowed me with a side part (always my favourite) to let all the hair from the crown and behind the ears to grow out to just the one length and down over my collar, except for the final 2 or 3 inches or so which because they were cut so much thinner were therefore much flatter and so far less noticeable.
Meanwhile I grew out the front and sides from the old dreadfully hacked mess also to one length but long enough to cover the bottom of the ears so that I was then able to loop/ sweep it all back into the longer hairs behind.and that looked ahem....!!....oh so very calm and smooth man ! (well I liked it anyway lol !) Anyway all this meant that I finally finished up with two different lengths overall – one shorter at the front and sides and one longer at the back, in fact very similar to some of those old ‘70’s men’s hair styles. (I’ve often felt since by the way it would have been a useful idea at the time to tie together any old mops, thin straw, matting whatever etc. etc., form it roughly into a head of ‘hair’ and get in a lot of practice cutting and styling it.) Of course another advantage I found out later was if you’d thinned out the very bulky thick ends properly they would then all lie flat and smooth usually avoiding the need for any greasy oils or gels, meaning it was able to stay clean and shiny for a lot longer as well.
Overall I think this whole process took about 18 months to two years though it wasn’t that short to begin with, 2/3 inches all round or so ? Even if style-wise I was light years out of date I felt really happy and comfortable with it keeping it going for a good 3 or 4 more years, though this was mainly because of those special scissors !! It was such an incredibly easy maintenance routine, all I had to do was just maintain the ends alone by trimming them once every 3/4 months and that was partly to club the ends as much as anything else !
Then in April 1999 I finally decided to stop the trimming altogether and just let it grow. And with that particular style because it’s already the one length to start with by the time it’s past your shoulders you hardly notice the differences between the two halves any more. And I haven’t cut or trimmed it since. Whilst unfortunately it’s a bit thin in the usual male areas the rest is just as thick with no split ends to speak of as I’ve always only finger combed from day one. Now I’m waiting till it’s down to my waist or so before I even things up as I feel there’s no point in spoling the fun of watching and feeling it getting longer and longer just for appearance’s sake ! Most of the time it’s in a daily ponytail anyway so it’s not noticeable when all the ends are bunched together.
Hope this made some sense and helps ?
Enjoy :-)
What a great reply. Yes, it does make a lot of sense and it does help