Hairy Tale

Sunday night, because I was bored (and I don't recommend this), I cut my hair. It wasn't any big deal; I just cut myself some long bangs. I even layered them, because I am awesome like that.

With great bangs come great responsibility (I think I heard that somewhere), and what this meant for me was this: I'd have to take my hair out of the ponytail.

My sister Joon and I often joke that our dad's cure for everything is a ponytail. When we were kids and our mom was out of town, Joon and I had ponytails; it was the only thing our dad could do with our hair. When we were older, and complained about our hairnot poufing right, or something (because it was the 80s, you know, and the Pouf was very important), he'd say, "Well, why don't you put it in a ponytail?" And we'd answer, "People are starving: ponytail!" and, "I'm out of money: ponytail!" and "I'm failing chemistry: ponytail!"

But the truth is, a ponytail really is pretty handy. It's become my standard hair style. When I wear my hair in a ponytail, I can sleep an extra fifteen minutes in the morning. I don't have to dry my hair all the way, and it's out of my face, and I get a facelift every day.

This year, at school, I've worn my hair down probably four times. One of those was for the school picture (I didn't want to look bald). Probably three out of those four times, I wound up putting my hair back in its ponytail within the first six minutes of first period. It was just too inconvenient.

The result of this is that my hair has gotten pretty long, and I didn't even know it. I got a haircut two weeks ago, and I asked the lady to cut off two inches, and it's still hitting past my shoulderblades. The last time I had hair this long was in college, which was quite a few years ago, actually.

But: the bangs make a difference, one that the ponytail can't quite hide. And they require more of a time commitment in the morning than I'd previously given. So far I've gotten around this by washing my hair--and curling it--at night (I really hate getting up in the morning); we'll see how long that lasts.

Yesterday, I debuted my new bangs at school. No fewer than sixteen people said something to me about my hair.
"Ms. Flower, your hair looks so good."
"Ms. Flower, your hair looks different, but good different."
"Ms. Flower, you look so cute today."

Today, I saw a new set of students, all of whom had something to say as well. I walked next to a student in the hallway, and she did an actual double-take. Like, a MOVIE double-take. (I'm glad she wasn't drinking something, as I am not a fan of the spit-take). A student I've had for three years did this, "OH MY GAWD," like Janice, off of Friends. He later told me that I had "a Farrah Fawcett thing going on, and it really works for you."

My favorite thing, though, that a student said, was this: "Ms. Flower, your hair has been looking particularly luscious these past two days." LUSCIOUS. Now how does one respond to that?

It's been nice, all this attention, although I hadn't realized how much the ponytail affected my students' perceptions of me.

I wonder what they'll say when I shave my legs.