The Length of my Hair or Hair, Part 1

As a child my hair was cut short,

Fun Fact: warm laundry makes great hats

but then until I was 16, I let it grow and grow--barely allowing it even to be trimmed.

Then, at 16, I decided I wanted to cut it. Perhaps because one of my high school friends asked, if I always wore it in a bun, what was the use of having really long hair? Who knows why really.

And the decision--even though I had made it on my own-- was 'traumatizing' enough. But I survived :). ((Mom, could you find a photo in my photo box for this? I looked but I don't have one...))

And as many who have had a dramatic hair cut can sympathize, I found it odd that the hairbrush was done half-way down my arm (as opposed to traveling through hair past my waist...My hair had been long enough to tuck into my pants--and yes, this did happen.)

Anyway one haircut led to another and before my mission I cut my hair quite short--chin length.

A shopping excursion with Farmer Brown (he's not yet wearing his hat...but I am wearing M's fabulous hat)

I actually wanted to go pixie cut, but I wasn't sure if I'd know how to deal with it on my mission, so I didn't.

Here M and I are going to the theater

While on my mission I cut my companion's hair once or twice.

I even cut my own hair--but I left the hair at the nape of my neck, so that I could measure how long it had grown.

At the short, chin-length cut of Christmas 2008, the hair at the nape of my neck was ca. 1 inch long. By the time I returned from my mission just after Christmas 2010, that same hair was about 10-15(?) inches long (this is an approximation much after the fact). Impressive.

(I also learned how to wear it curly! *Finally!* Tip#1 don't brush through it--that results in an uncontrollable bush. Tip#2 rinse conditioner out with head upside-down and while scrunching the curls with your hands. While drying, continue occasionally scrunching. Can scrunch mousse into it too. Can form curls with your fingers.)

See this post about my first time cutting my hair really short. (Aaaand, apparently that post doesn't exist. Because I never wrote it. Okay..then, here goes :) )

My desire to cut my hair short returned after my mission, but sooner than I expected I was engaged. Again, I wasn't sure what to do with really short hair, so I left it long for the wedding.

But then, afterwards, I told F about this desire for really short hair. I had been apprehensive, thinking that all guys like long hair (my dad does at least...), but F just said, 'Sure. Go ahead. Besides, all the girls in my family have short hair, so that's fine by me--and I'm kinda tired of kissing a bush...'
My mane before:

Oh yes, and I had given myself bangs :P

This first haircut left my looking astonishingly like--my grandma :)

Like really like my grandma. ((Mom, do you have a picture of her too? That's be awesome!)) She also had really dark short hair..twinners!

Love those spit curls!

Since then it has been mostly short and shorter. This post has pics from the second time I got it cut in a hair salon, again really short. (My mom used to cut my hair and then for a bit a hair dresser we knew from church). The third time at a salon was then in Germany and the 4th time I got it cut by a friend in our congregation for the first day of school.

I wanted to see how long my hair grew in my first full school year teaching.

And now I'm enjoying it longer...so maybe I'll grow it out. At the very least, I'm postponing all out shaving my head..but I'm sure that'll come at some point :)