Lake and Columbus (I was cutting off all my hair)

After the last time I donated my hair, I wasn't sure I'd ever do it again. It was what you might call a slightly traumatic experience, for those of us whose problems mainly fall into the 'first-world' category. It was about three years ago now, but I still remember the particular indignity of sitting in my car sobbing in the garage at LMU before dragging myself to teach my afternoon classes.

Look, it's Jenny!

It's safe to say that I'm not a fan of getting my hair cut, so much so that it's been about ten months since my last trim.

But that said, I also tend to make large decisions impulsively. (Example: when trying to decide where to go to grad school, I told my undergrad advisor about my campus visits to my top three choices. When I finished recounting my trip, he was quiet for a moment and then said "looks like you're going to UCLA." I thought it over for about 30 seconds, said "yeah, I guess," and emailed them later that day to accept their offer of admission.)

You can probably see where I'm heading with this story. (Hint: it involves semi-impulsively deciding to do something I spent three years thinking I wouldn't do. What can I say? Changing a long-held view is sort of a habit of mine!)

You see, I had A Decision to make. Since I waited a ridiculous amount of time between haircuts, my hair got ridiculously long, so I knew I'd be cutting off at least five inches. I also knew that if I cut off just a little bit more than what I envisioned, I'd be able to donate it. What's more, I'd be able to donate a massive amount of hair, since (like most women) I haven't been losing any hair for the duration of this pregnancy!

I spent more time than usual thinking this over, and debating the various pros and cons of chopping off a significant amount of my hair. Much as I don't like how I look with short hair, I'll admit that the idea of caring for shorter hair whilst adjusting to motherhood was appealing. And given how much I hate to clean, it seemed like a good idea to cut my hair before it starts falling out postpartum. 50% less hair means 50% fewer hair-tumbleweeds underfoot!

"It looks like a makeup brush!" - Jenny

But still, I wasn't sure what I'd do until the night before my appointment. After asking Jeff what he thought I should do over and over, I actually got a tape measure and made him show me how much hair I'd still have if I cut off eight and a half inches (e.g. slightly more than the minimum required by Pantene Beautiful Lengths).

Here's what it boiled down to: I had to decide whether to donate five inches of hair to the trash and get the style I really wanted, or to cut off about nine inches, donate it to an organization that makes wigs for people with hair loss, and impatiently wait for my hair to grow back to a point I'm happy with.

Well, when I put it that way, I'm not sure why it was such a hard decision after all.

Would you ever consider donating your hair?

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