Last night I cut my hair. This is not necessarily a strange event to most people but it’s a little different with me because I cut it myself. You see, hair and me, well, we have issues. Hair seems to hate being on the top of my head (where I would prefer it to stay) and loves growing in my ears and on my back where I would prefer to it go. Not only that, more and more of it insists that it’s proper color it white instead of my preferred shade for it, black. So you see, I am at odds with my hair. It and I do not get along well. It is for this reason that I often internally refer to haircut nights as “hair death nights” and I think of each little strand screaming in agony as my electric clippers shears it in two. Last night was hair death night. I hadn’t shaved in days (something I emphatically dislike doing) and the hair on my head was looking kooky (thick on the sides, thin on the top, shaggy all over) so I started hair death by shaving. All those little whiskers murdered and ready to rise again tomorrow. I looked at my face after shaving and it hit me… I look a lot better without the whiskers. 5 years ago I felt the opposite. I looked forward to being whiskered because I liked the look. Now, for the first time, I realized I don’t like it anymore. Hmmm. Next up, the hair. I lathered, I clippered, I trimmed and I studied myself carefully from multiple angles. I changed a few things, trimmed the sides shorter than usual but leaving the top longer. I determined that it was good. This morning I looked at myself in the mirror and for the first time in a few years I liked what I saw. Something was just subtly different enough with my hair that I dug it. Oh sure, I still had some grey, but I got rid of some of it too. Oh sure I was still thin on top, but it was better balanced by how short the sides were. In general I gotta say I was/am pretty happy with it. Now, I know that might not be all that interesting to everyone else, but for me this is a big deal because I have only recently started to notice or care about things like this. Before I only cared that it was “presentable”. Now I want it to look good. It’s a major change in my mindset. Is it the onset of a mid-life crisis? Is it because I turn 30 in 6 weeks? I dunno….
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