Four Reasons Why I Gave Up

Remember back when I gave you too many details about the history of my hair?  

Here's the link to that post, in case you forgot and need a refresher.

It was just a little over a year ago when I set the goal to grow out my hair - to the point that I would be able to reach around my back and grab the ends of it with my fingertips.  I was determined.  I was holding firm in my resolve.


Then my resolve crumbled.  There were four things that happened that made me change my mind.

First of all, it's my hair.  It grows very slowly.  I've heard it said that, on average, a person grows about a half of an inch per month.  I am way, way, way below the average.  I tried to go in to get the ends trimmed about every 9 weeks to keep my hair healthy, and I don't know if the lady that cuts my hair took off too much each time or if my hair just doesn't grow very fast (or likely a combination of the two), but it always seemed like every trim was actually setting me back as far as getting any length!

The second thing that happened was pregnancy.  I've heard it said that all of the hormone fluctuation that your body goes through with pregnancy can change your hair.  I've always doubted that and put it off as one of those old wives' tales.  Old, pregnant wives' tales.  But it's true.  I can attest to it's truthfulness.  My hair  has always been straight.  Like so straight that it was even resistant to curl - if I used a curling iron it wouldn't hold the curl for very long before the curl just turned into tweaks.  After my pregnancy with Audrey, my hair was still straight - maybe even more curl-resistant, if that's possible.  Before I had Luke I cut my hair super short and then a few months later, decided to grow it out:  that's the last picture in the aforementioned post.  As my hair got longer, I noticed (and the lady that cuts my hair noticed too) all of this natural curl in my hair.  It's crazy!  I've never had any curl to my hair, not even slight waves... nothing.  It's always been straight, straight, straight. 

Oh, and it's not so super curly that it's cute though.  It's just curly enough to be a huge headache when it comes to trying to style my hair.  Even using a flat iron doesn't really do the job to straighten some of the little curly buggers.  So now it just looks like I've got a bunch of different, random cowlicks all over the back of my head.  Not cute.

The third thing that happened was me.  I'm lazy.  I don't like spending a lot of time trying to fix and style my hair.  I want to be able to do it quickly and not have to mess around a ton - with all of the curliness it was taking so much time to just try and make it look decent.

And the fourth, and probably most significant, reason that I gave up on growing my hair long is my hair.  It is just naturally fine.  Fine hair and long hair don't really mix.  Having flat, limp hair with no volume is not cute.  And there's only so much that layering and texturizing will do.

So, without further ado, here's the most recent picture of how long my hair got before I gave up:

 

It was taken just a couple of weeks ago, on my birthday.  I didn't even make it to my shoulders, but with my hair that might've taken until the end of the year!  And that's a long time to have flat, random cowlick-y hair!  And, really, why should I just tolerate my hair - shouldn't I really like how it looks?!  This was the epiphany that I had a few days ago.  I should like my hair - I shouldn't be frustrated with it all the time.  And, honestly, I like my hair best when it's short.  Plus, I think that there are some people that just don't have the type of hair that looks good long.  I am, unfortunately, one of those people.

But I feel okay about it because I think it goes both ways:  not everyone looks good in short hair either.

I think I am one that can pull it off.

I think.

At least, I hope I can!  

Because I cut all my hair off this morning!  And this is what it looks like:

So... what do you think?