Note: This was originally posted last April 22, 2014. Because I decided to cut my hair short again, I’m re-posting this article with updates on how girls in 2016 deal with their shockingly short hair.
Transitioning from a long or even medium-length hair to short hair (and when I say short I mean Jennifer Lawrence short circa 2013-1014) can be very scary to any girls. Our hair is our safe haven, our source of confidence, our symbol of femininity! Okay, I’m not trying to talk you out of having a major haircut if you were planning to have one since it seems like every woman from Hollywood to your neighborhood are cutting their hairs short. I’m just going to share to you my personal experience, the pros, cons and emotional roller coaster of having a pixie haircut… just because I want to, in case you were wondering.
Photo by Kristian Villaflor
This stolen shot of me in Starbucks was taken only a week or two after my first major haircut back in December 2013. If you are following me in Instagram or Snapchat you probably already knew I’ve been rocking a pixie haircut again this 2016 for almost a month now. And once again, I’m sharing my new experience with a pixie hair. Below are the 20 things you will encounter before and during a major haircut based on my own experience:
1. You surely have been contemplating about it for awhile, you’re not sure how long already. You’ve consulted your mother, friends, even your Instagram and/or Snapchat followers. You even searched for pictures of celebrities that kinda sorta vaguely “look like” you, only with better hair.
2. Speaking of Instagram, you’ve been taking selfies –a lot of selfies highlighting your long hair with caption like “Haircut: to have or not to have, that is the question?” with haircut emoji, of course. Or a Snapchat saying how much you love your look, like you’re convincing yourself that you don’t need a major haircut.
Oh yeah, I f***ing love that filter
3. Or you upload a teaser photo in which you “surreptitiously” snap a selfie — oversized hair clips, smock, and all or using an app like Imecode— to amp your totally adoring Insta following up for the big reveal.
4. Until you look down at the salon floor and see spools and spools of hair around the base of your chair and subsequently have a mild panic attack.
5. There’s immediate, soul-crushing regret. The kind of regret you have to hide because you know 95% of said emotions are due to shock from major transition. But still, you will soldier through and try to hide that quavering lip as your hairstylist asks what you think and when those “shampoo girls” give you that annoying disapproving look or worst, tell in your freakin’ face that you should have opted for a bob haircut instead. It makes you question yourself if you really did the right decision. [Ed Note: If you’re a “shampoo girl” in a salon, no offense but it’s really rude to tell your customer who had a pixie haircut that they should have opted for something else.]
6. You come down with a case of “Reflexive Touching of the New Hair” in which you really don’t want to mess up the blow out you’ll never recreate in the comfort of your own bathroom, but still, going from hair that extends past your bra line to somewhere north of your shoulders is a big change, and you’ll constantly make sure that, yep, you actually just paid someone to do that.
7. But you will have a good feeling knowing that any and all damage incurred by heat, split ends, bleaching, coloring, too-tight hair ties, and years of never-quite-washed-out sea salt spray is, for the most part, utterly removed from your head.
8. Again, *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* *selfie* with with haircut emoji on the caption or a cute Snapchat filter.
9. [Wait patiently for someone to notice and mention the haircut]
10. Not enough likes on Instgram? You’re like Ohmigod-nobody-is-noticing-it-nobody-is-liking-my-photo-does-it-really-look-that-bad-what-have-I-done?!
11. Then soon enough, you’re getting a bunch of “coming out of the closet” questions and other more lesbian (but appropriate) jokes, but you’ll experience instant redemption when a friend tells you “it looks good on you” either face to face, through text, Twitter or comment because even though you did this for yourself and don’t need the external validation of other people, yeah, you’d still like somebody to tell you that you look damn fine every now and again. [Ed Note: Just for the record, I don’t have homophobic family or friends, they’re just sarcastic which I love/hate -but more on love- about them.]
12. You start walking down the street with a new bounce in your step, as if strangers can tell that you just had about a pound’s worth of dead keratin lobbed off from your cranium, and suddenly everything is so much lighter and freer and you are floating — nay, sashaying — nay, Sasha Fiercing all down that sidewalk.
13. You raid your local drugstore’s hair aisle, promptly promising yourself that you are going to be the kind of person to style your hair very easily from here on out, so you load up on texturizer and hairspray and serums and polishes and a hair mask and plenty more goops and potions to keep your hair at its newly peak level.
14. Though it will feel weird when you shower for the first time, grasping for the phantom limb of hair that once existed. Realize it takes you about 20% of the time it usually did to wash your hair, thereby solidifying it as the best. idea. ever.
15. And yet another crisis when your hair dried up and no professional hairstylist to blow dry it. Some hair are annoyingly sticking out despite using hair mousse, hairspray, etc and your bangs (if you opt to have one) keeps on blocking your eyes.
16. Opening Pinterest only to see the most kick-ass of kick-ass braids, which you would have been able to flawlessly recreate a mere five days ago. Instantly regret everything, vow to let your hair grow out so that you too can have a Ice-Queen-Elsa ‘do to rule them all.
17. Take one more selfie for good measure. Just because you can, and yeah, this is actually an awesome new look.
Hair up or down? With bangs or pushed back?
18. Still waiting for more people (patiently) to compliment it.
19. Whether it was your intention or not but you’ll feel like it’s the beginning of a new you, a classier you, a more polished, put together, pristine version of the person You Could Be. You’re going to be excited putting together ensembles and outfits that reflect your new haircut.
20. You have a new found confidence. It’s like you are ready to take over the world and you look so damn good on your photos.
BONUS: To be honest, I never felt more feminine until I had my first major haircut. So my second time getting a pixie hair wasn’t so shocking as the first one. Since my hair is so boyish now I sort of stayed away from my go-to denim + t-shirt + boots combo and opted for dresses and skirts instead. Also, I have been accessorizing more nowadays, like Rachel Zoe kind of accessorizing: more is more.