electromagnetic pulse

MMeO. Haircut, check-in.

"Excuse me." I was lost in my own attempt to find North as a passing stranger sought my attention with a tentative hand on my shoulder. "Great hair cut, that's a great style."

Did that really happen? Nearly two months post awesome new haircut a random passing stranger bothered to stop long enough to compliment me on it. Wow. I had already been impressed that for the entire first month after my haircut, fellow employees at the museum were doing the same. Co-workers ranging from those I interact with hourly to those with whom I have never held a single conversation found it impossible to pass without some positive comment. (I'm not exaggerating, I am astonished.) Was it that my peers finally were able to see the person they held in their minds? Were acquaintances starting to see something more?

I have been silently keeping notes on the effects of this brilliant haircut and that others seem to enjoy it more than what I had before is, I admit, a part that makes me more comfortable with them.

And I like the haircut --I like how it feels and that it is FAR easier to wear through the day than long hair. My hair is naturally full, so when it is bobbed, it does that bouncy, springy thing that I always imagined my long hair doing. And I've actually learned how to style it with a blow drier! Not only that, but there are days when I elect to do so, simply because it makes my hair more manageable for a long day. (There must be so many women out there rolling their eyes at my naivete.)

The real break through here is that I feel liberated in my new commitment to this part of my appearance. Yes! I can look "nice." I can show others a little effort and feel better about how I am connecting with society. And I'm okay with choosing to blow-dry my hair or not, to style it one way (clean, professional) or another (youthful, carefree, or something like that). Admittedly, this is an easy place to start because I've always at least worried about how my hair looks, even if I didn't always know what to do about it. Though it's never been the hair I wanted, I have "great hair," so it's easy to "transform" it.

What I'm doing is a) giving in to my hair's characteristics, b) managing them according to codes of beauty (here and now). And, in this case, I'm comfortable with that. I don't feel my sense of person threatened or changed. What has changed a little is that I worry less about how my hair looks and whether it looks "good." I pretty much know how it looks all the time, and I've got unmistakeably honest testimonials as to its "success," if that's what it is to jive with the pleasure others take in your appearance.

Labels: MMeO

posted by e m p @ 10:00 PM