Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty?"


A few weeks ago, I decided it was time for a haircut. Those who know me well know that a haircut for Molly usually means trimming the ends, a bit of re-layering, and maybe putting in some bangs. After I donated my hair to Locks of Love during high school, I've been growing it out, swearing that I'd never chop off that much hair again. 

Apparently, that was a lie. I got to the hair salon the day of my appointment and sat in the little waiting area looking over different magazines. My original plan was to trim my ends and have the stylist put in some straight across bangs. That was all. But as I flipped through the pages of celebrities with bitching haircuts of varying styles, my resolve began to weaken. And as my resolve weakened, an image of a particular musician came into my head. Neyla Pekarek is the cellist for The Lumineers and she has some of the prettiest hair I've ever seen.



I'm sure for most people this isn't a very short style and, to me, it didn't seem that short either. I just knew that I wanted my hair to look like Neyla Pekarek. I made a snap decision and told my stylist the length that I wanted, except I was a moron and told her shorter than the picture. And, just like stylists tend to do, she gave me exactly what I asked for. For a half second, I considered being one of those people who cries when too much of their precious hair gets chopped off, but then I remembered that this whole thing had been my idea. I was horrified at what I'd done, but I smiled and told the nice lady that I loved it. 

It's so short that I can't reach my arm behind my back and pull at the ends. It's so short that I need an army of bobby pins to hold up the stray ends when I put it up in a ponytail. It's so short that I can't pull it to one side. And, to my horror, I remembered that I'd really wanted my hair to be long for my best friend's wedding next summer.

Is this a trivial thing? Most definitely. Does it really merit an entire blog post? Probably not. 

My hair definitely doesn't do what Neyla Pekarek's does, but technically, it's not a bad haircut. It's a nice short style, but I miss my long hair like nobody's business. And, if you didn't know, the quote in the title is from Little Women. It's Amy March's response when her big sister Jo sells her hair for money - money for a train ticket so Marmee can go and visit her husband who's been injured in the war. I think Jo's reasons were a bit more heroic and sensible than mine, but I still empathize with her predicament. 

Before

After