several problems accompany growing your hair out when you get old. i’m sure you don’t really care, but…yeah, i don’t care that you don’t care anymore. (that’s an upside to getting old.)
in January, i stopped cutting my hair. i wasn’t growing it out then. i just wasn’t cutting it. this was a tactic meant primarily to fool myself into believing that i wasn’t actually going to grow it out. i admitted it somewhere around July, when it got decidedly longer. and more annoying. and the only way i could convince myself not to hack all of it off was to say, “yes. i’m growing it out.” not that anybody actually cared, but…people kept asking. after you have worn your hair in a pixie for the better part of 15 years, once it actually hits your ears, you look…different. interestingly, it took another two months before anyone really noticed. no, really. i stand on stage every third week in front of 1600 people and sing for half an hour, and until i took the blond streak out of the front of my hair and dyed it a semi-normal shade of reddish-brown, nobody batted an eye. then all of a sudden, everyone said, “Mindy! your hair has gotten so long! i actually leaned over and had to ask my husband if we had a new person on the worship team! it took us the whole worship set to realize it was you.”
wow.
so. a few observations about growing out my hair over 40. because i’ll likely never do this again.
ever.
(no, i mean it.)
1) i absolutely have to continue coloring the growing-out hair, and it begins to require more than one box to cover the color it would be (because my hair is not thinning as i age, for which i am grateful). and i’m seriously not sure what the color would be. because…i will never let the roots get long enough to know what color they actually are.
2) this morning i did my hair and actually liked how it turned out–i didn’t even blow it dry. but i don’t have any clue how i actually did it and i’m nearly certain i can’t duplicated it at a later time. scratch that. i know for absolutely sure i can’t do it at a later time. early senility. it’s real. (sort of like perimenopause.)
3) the morning goes by and rather than spend the 15 minutes required to do my hair (are you FREAKING kidding me???), i think, “it’s short. no problem.” but it hasn’t been no-problem-short in 10 months and…yeah. rewetting my whole head so i can blow it dry, then flat-iron it SUCKS.
4) nobody recognizes you. anywhere. ever.
5) everyone you see, once they finally realize it’s you, says, “oh my gosh, i’ve never seen you with long hair! i never would have recognized you!” (note: hair has not yet reached chin) i wear the exact same clothes, drive the same vehicle, walk around with the same husband, same children…who on EARTH do you think i am???
6) i have seriously forgotten how good it feels to have someone play with my hair. i know this sounds small, but…it’s so not. pixie cuts do not lend themselves to your husband running his fingers through your hair (hello, too much product). or your daughters trying their hands at braids. i remember begging my mother to braid my hair over and over and now…i remember why. having someone play with my hair is better than a massage.
7) it’s also a heck of a lot cheaper than a massage.
8) my ultimate goal is to put my hair in a freaking ponytail. actually, scratch that. i want a full-on messy bun. because i’m pretty sure a messy bun is going to either a) look completely ridiculous on me or b) drive me completely bat-crap crazy because symmetry, neatness, and smooth non-frizziness matters to me, even with hair. and when that happens, i will need to chop it all off and go back to sanity.
and that, my friends, is not a bad thing. (though likely unattainable for me)
9) i’m actually only growing my hair out because so many people have told me “you will never be able to get your hair past your chin/shoulders/long enough to say you have long hair, blah, blah, blah.” i love proving people wrong. even if it makes me nutsy cuckoo in the process. and it might. (who am i kidding? i was already nutsy cuckoo.)
(but you knew that.)
10) i have a problem with rebellion.
(which you probably knew too.)
i know. it’s just hair. it’s inconsequential and totally and completely not important in the face of eternity…but it’s what i’m dealing with lately. i’m feeling my age creep up on me as it grows…i so clearly remember the brushing and curling and perming and trimming and worrying-over it from years ago…and i see my daughters in my ranting about how much it’s bugging me. it’s humbling, really. i don’t know how long i’ll let it get, or how long this growing-out will last…but it’s an interesting process. i want to cut it off every single day…
…but i won’t. 😉
at the end of the day…with all the makeup smudged and smeared…(see, not even to my chin! and all one color!)(with a messy kitchen as a backdrop!)
All Is Grace 
#1 by Michelle on September 29, 2015 - 9:26 am
it’s definitely the lack of blonde that is the most noticeable. I think it looks great either way! I’ve spent most of my adulthood trying to figure out what my hairstyle should be, since the super-long, spiral-permed look of my youth is no longer acceptable.
#2 by malindar on September 29, 2015 - 9:49 am
I spent my adulthood doing simple-funky… I feel altogether too normal right now! But thank you!! I think I spend too much time worrying about my hair, probably… But very little time doing it, usually. And that’s my goal. If your style looks cute and doesn’t require large amounts of time, keep it!!