Mew~!

Happy new year! I haven’t posted anything new in the longest time so I feel bad that this blog has been lacking context. However, brace yourself because this is going to be one long post! First things first, I should probably give a hair history so this whole thing makes a little more sense.

I have had long hair for most of my adult life. In fact, the last time my hair was “short” was in 2008. Even then it was slightly passed my shoulders which most people don’t even consider short. When you’ve mainly had hair down to your waist, believe me, anywhere above your chest is short!

I loved my hair but I also love experimenting with it. Since 2010 I’ve been experimenting off and on with dying and styling my hair different ways. Although I wasn’t someone who dyed my hair every month, (I probably dyed my hair once a month, 4 times out of a 12 month period) the dye I used was extremely harsh. Asian hair is hard to dye so I had to use a specialty brand that had bleach in the mixture to even slightly lighten it. Because of this, my ends were fairly dry and I was always too lazy to just trim them. My hair was in otherwise good condition.

Last year in September my hair took a beating. I desperately wanted an unnatural color hair and went with purple ombre. I thought to myself, “if I don’t like it, then there’s my excuse to try short hair!” It was an idea I had been flirting with since the summer time. I didn’t bleach my ends but because my hair was already lighter/damaged from the Asian dye, my hair had no problem sucking up the purple dye. It was really pretty but it made me realize how bad the condition of my hair was. The purple washed out within a month and instead of redying it, I wanted my hair to look healthy so I dyed it back to black.

After seeing more and more ladies with short hair, I desperately wanted to cut my locks and follow the new trend. It took me until a little under a week ago to go short. As excited as I was to get the new cut, I chopped it off… I cut my hair to about the same length as 2008 where it was just passed my shoulders.

The first day I was loving it. The second day came around annnddd not so much. By the third day my indecisive and impulsive self was looking up photos of how to rock a long bob (LOB). I saw girls with bangs and it looked fabulous. SOOOOOO I cut bangs. Seriously, someone should have stopped me because what an idiot hahaha. If there was anything that I learned in the process it was to not just be so impulsive. I really needed to think things through first. I honestly think I wouldn’t have as many regrets cutting my hair if I just cut bangs or cut it short. Not both.

It was definitely a mistake to cut bangs into something that I only had for a few days… FFS I wasn’t even used to the new style yet. It’s also what even inspired me to update my blog so I guess not all is lost. So this next section is for you ladies that have long hair and are indecisive about cutting it short.

Reasons why cutting my hair was a mistake:

I don’t feel confident. I really believe this is my major issue with cutting my hair. I knew what I was doing with my long hair. I was familiar with how it looked. With my new hair, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m afraid I look like a dark haired Garth or Cleopatra. I just don’t have the confidence I once had.

I don’t know how to style it. Everything I used to do doesn’t work. Basically I’ll have to relearn how to style my hair. This includes training it to fall where I want it to fall. My new bangs do not stay where I put them. The result? They end up looking jacked since they naturally want to lay with the rest of my long hair instead of laying on my forehead where bangs are supposed to lay.

It doesn’t stay in a ponytail. This can kind of relate to not knowing how to style it but man, for the life of me, I can’t do ponytails! My hair slips out of any ponytail and bobby pins I put in it. This has made my daily gym routine much more difficult. Before I could just throw my hair into a bun and I was good to go. Now I have to spend time tying and pinning everything up so that it’s not in the way. I can’t just work out with my hair down since the whole reason why I want my hair up is so it’s out of the way.

Because I haven’t had short hair since I was a teenager, I feel like a child. Multiply this by 7413470 since I also now have bangs. I seriously don’t know what I was thinking. I really thought adding bangs would make the cut look edgier like the girls I saw online. On me, it just looks childish. I’m 25! I don’t need to be looking like a little girl.

People hate the style. People who have gotten used to seeing me without bangs and with long hair either love the new style or hate it. It doesn’t help if one of those people is your husband. I’m sorry bb :(

Reasons why cutting my hair was worth it:

Save time showering. When my hair was waist long, the majority of the time spent in the shower is just dealing with it! I didn’t really realize how much time I spend just rinsing my hair until it was short. Literally shampooing then trying to rinse all the shampoo out and doing the same with conditioner is time consuming! It’s a breeze taking a quick shower on days I need to wash my hair.

Save on hair products. The amount of shampoo and conditioner I used has been cut by more than half. I used to have the hardest time coating my hair in conditioner or even shampooing it. Now that it’s less hair I’m managing, a little bit goes a long way.

People love the style. I have gotten so many compliments on my new do. People at the grocery store, the gym, and even friends and family stop and say how much they love it.

My hair is healthy. Not only does it look and feel healthy but I can genuinely see how great the condition is. There are no split ends and my hair is incredibly silky and smooth. It’s so silky that I don’t even have to think about brushing it. It literally just falls into place.

It’s a change. If you’re ambitious, impulsive, or just want change, I’d say go for it. Just cut your hair. It’s only hair! It’ll grow back. And although there are still some negatives that I’m personally trying to work though, it has only been a week since I’ve had my new hair style. There’s so much that I’ll be learning so I feel confident in rocking the new do. Hopefully I’ll feel inspired to post more often. Maybe this is a “new year, new me”, as much as I hate that saying…

XO Simone