Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Before and After

For the last five years I have been growing out my hair. Okay, maybe not quite that long, but close to it. It was the longest I've had my hair in a really long time. In fact, my younger boys haven't really seen me with shorter hair or don't remember me with shorter hair.

My hair - just last week - fresh out of the shower.

The ironic thing about this is I did not grow up having long hair. More often than not, I was mistaken for a boy in my childhood because my hair was so short. I was blessed (not...) with baby fine hair which tangles easily. Apparently, I was not the most compliant child when it came time to brush my hair thus the short do.

Me - age 5 - first day of kindergarten

I have been growing up my hair though with the intent of donating it. I've actually done this a few times in the past. It just takes me a really long time to grow out my hair. In the last ten years, I've done so twice. Today was my third time.

I walked in knowing I was going to have it cut but thinking only about eight inches. Pantene takes this length (it's the shortest length I've found among all the organizations who do this) for their Beautiful Lengths program.

I'm awful at figuring out how long my hair really was and how much I could cut off without sacrificing the ability to pull it in to a ponytail for workouts and such. My fine hair gets very fly-away and static-y so I like to be able to pull it up. In fact, I rarely wore my hair down at all in the last five years. It was always up - in a ponytail or a bun. Always.

Today I had a twelve inch ponytail cut off. A FOOT OF HAIR! I knew it was long, but that just blew me away. I have some split ends at the bottom so it's going to be more like ten inches of usable hair - going to women who need a wig after cancer treatment.

Today - minus twelve inches of hair.

Every time I donate my hair to causes like this, I think of my mom. She died from a complication (infection) while going through cancer treatment. She wasn't far enough in to her treatments to have lost her hair yet, but there are so many - just like her - who have lost their hair. I'm glad I'm able to do this.

4 comments:

  1. That was a very sweet and kind thing to do. I really like your new cut as much as I can see from the back!

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  2. Incredible Lisa! Can't wait to see it. Looks beautiful from the back.

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  3. Wonderful. :) My sister-in-law benefitted from a wig like that when she went through her cancer treatments. What a blessing. :)

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