Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH!
So, quick funny story: five years ago, I was watching a story on the news about how women are cutting their hair into pixies more than ever, and they were looking at tweets regarding this story to see what the public has to say about it. I wrote something along the lines of “It’s so hard not to reach for a pair of scissors and cut my hair really short!” Five minutes later, they featured my tweet on the news. This has been my third appearance on the news, and no, they were not for negative things.
I wasn’t lying when I said that I would cut my hair really short into a pixie. Something about cutting your hair extremely short like that felt liberating and exciting to experience, but I always felt way too scared to go for the big chop. I was never a stranger to a pair of hair-cutting scissors; I mean, I pretty much rocked every hair length you can imagine except for a pixie. So when I was looking at pixie haircuts online last month, something told me to just go for it. You have to try things at least once in your life, and this was something I personally had on my bucket list.
So, a month later, I’m here to tell you about my experience about this rocking short hairdo.
- When I first cut my hair, it felt extremely weird to not have hair go down my neck. It constantly felt like I had a high ponytail on. The best part about not having that much hair on the back of my head is that I didn’t have to use that much shampoo and conditioner like I used to! The bad thing… my hair gets a bit greasier when I sweat, and on the warmer days we had last month, it was brutal hoe greasy my hair got. Another bad thing was that whenever it was really cold, my neck got cold as well. Seriously, I walked around my house a couple of times with a scarf on because my neck was so damn cold!
- Knowing what to wear without feeling too frumpy or tomboyish was a challenger; I’m not a girly dresser to begin with. I learned that certain necklines on shirts and sweaters did not look well with my short hair, and I learned some looked great with my short hair that didn’t when I had longer hair. Same came to jewelry: I quickly realized that the only pair of mini hoop earrings I wear did not look so great with my hair anymore, so I gravitated towards stud earrings, which I never really liked when I had longer hair.
- Surprisingly (and this could just be because I don’t go out much and socialize), but I didn’t get the “mad attention you get when you cut your hair into a pixie cut”. I mean, the only person who gave me that attention when they first saw it was my partner, and I was surprised that he really liked it! Maybe short hair is just so common to see women rocking now, it’s not a complete head-turner anymore. Or maybe I’m just delusional and don’t see people looking at me when I walk by. Just saying!
- There will be days where you don’t feel pretty with short hair as you do with longer hair, and that just goes with the phases of having a short haircut. There are days where I look in the mirror and think “oh God, please grow already” and then there are moments where I’m like “I’M A HOT ASS CHICK!” I think it’s just us trying to break those boundaries of what beauty really is in society, and long hair does not define it.
- When rocking a pixie cut, you have to decide real quick if you want to grow it out or maintain the pixie haircut look. As a person maintaining my haircut, I have to get my hair trimmed at least once every two weeks, because you start to notice just how fast hair really grows when it’s short like a pixie. Although I’m nowhere near that “awkward grown out pixie” stage, I can only imagine just how annoying it’s going to be when I get there, and I honestly believe that’s one of the things you have to consider before cutting it really short. Are you ready to maintain it and style it differently? Are you ready for bad hair days during the awkward stage? If so, cut the damn thing off!
- Lastly, rocking a pixie cut has given me some of my confidence back. It’s not my hair that’s talking for me or hiding me, it’s not “societal beauty” that is making me instantly attractive. Most importantly, my hair isn’t a security blanket anymore. I’m out in the open, and at times quite exposed. It’s also teaching me that it isn’t scary to try new and exciting things, and for a person with anxieties like mine, that is a major deal. I probably would’ve regretted this decision by now. This experience is teaching me that I am in control of my life and my body, and I’m allowed to do things (like cutting my hair short) to experience something like this in my life. It’s a major step, and it’s going to be years until I start seeing some length again, but it’s not impossible!
That’s basically it. My pixie haircut has taken me on an interesting journey this past month, and I’m glad that I got the balls to actually try something like this! I know it may be too old to try and chop up all your hair now (seriously, I should’ve waited until the summer when all I want to do is go completely bald), but when that warm weather comes along, you know what to try next! 😉
Happy chopping, hair folks!
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 