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Hair is one of my biggest expenses. I have a friend who is a professional high-talent stylist in a lot of demand. He cuts and colors my hair on a sliding scale, but still $35 or $50 is hard to come up with, even if I am getting a couple hundred dollars with of services. I've enjoyed having expensive hair -- red, blond -- he makes it all subtle and lovely and natural. He's worth a million dollars in my book. But it's still a standing expense that I need to let go of. When I was in my 20's and 30's I cut my hair. I got pretty good at it, but I had just one cut that I did -- a razor-assisted pixie cut (the most forgiving of cuts). Sure, there was that one summer I shaved my head, but I found the maintenance on a shaved head is a LOT of work if you want to make it look good. And I got tired of standing next to bald men who wore it better than I did. So that was an aberration. Anyway, the point is: I'm not scared of cutting my own hair. But maybe I should have been more cautious yesterday. I watched some DIY videos of people cutting their own hair. It looked pretty easy. Make a ponytail of all your hair in front of your face so you can see what you're doing, then chop, then make the edges less distinct by . I decided to do a variation. I made two ponytails -- one of the shorter hair in front, one of the hair in back and on the sides just on top of that. The plan was to do two different cuts -- the first to determine the length on back, and the second to determine the length of the bangs. That was the plan. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe I was impatient. Maybe I was impetuous. I certainly had little impulse control. But I took the (kinda dull) scissors and started hacking away, and somehow I got both pony tails at the same time, and when I shook it out I had a mostly even shape in the back and sides, but the front was mangled. I looked like the 90's-era love child of Mia Farrow and Andy Warhol. I did some more shaping on the sides, and razor-cut everything to blend. The shape isn't bad, but it was still a bit of a mess. So I checked out Timebank. I looked at my profile. I had 8 hours banked. I searched through the database of skills, and yes, there is a local woman who offers free styling as one of the services she'll earn an hour for. I sent a message to her, and within an hour I had an appointment for a clean-up haircut. But lesson learned. There will be mistakes along the way. Always. What is important isn't whether I do anything perfectly or not, but how I can turn to solutions, and think of alternatives to spending money. And if I hadn't had any resources to fix my hair? I'd have adapted to a life of bandanas made from repurposed boxer shorts. There is always a way. Also: it's just hair. It grows back. |
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ArchivesAuthorVirginia Lore enjoys living life as an experiment and frequently steps out of her comfort zone -- when she's not hiding out in her room with the covers over her head that is. You may email her: [email protected] |