2016 May 29
by Shamila Naleer
Short hair, don’t care. But really, how long is that “don’t care” attitude going to last? Be it a bob or a pixie cut, it can make things somewhat easier. Nevertheless, there are only certain plights that a woman with short hair would only be familiar with.
- Bed hair
Don’t get me wrong; sometimes, it can look cute. You wake up with a hair-do that’s just the right puffy, just the perfect wavy and everyone thinks short hair is the best.
Well, let us not forget the days we wake up looking like Mowgli from The Jungle Book. At times, it’s not even funny, just a tad bit scary. Might I add if you have short, frizzy hair, it can be really annoying.
- Sometimes, it doesn’t even help with the heat
When I say this, I mean appearance wise and the part where people tell you it’s much more cooling. If we get personal about it, I cut my hair last month mainly because I wanted a new ’do, but also due to the fact that Sri Lanka was on the verge of turning into Dallol in Ethiopia (which can record a 45°C heat according to mnn.com, that is). The first few days were actually fine. But then, the heat started getting to me and I could not step out of a non- air conditioned room without tying up my hair. What’s more, every time I had a bath, I had to blow-dry and iron my hair (Every. Single. Time) as a result of my hair turning into Monica Gellar’s “Humid Hair”.
- You will miss your long hair
It took me 24 hours (I kid you not) to miss my hair and to look in the mirror and think, “What have you done?!?!?!”
It will get particularly tough if it took you like 100 years to actually grow your hair to a decent long-ish length.
- The “Aunty Predicament”
“Chi! You don’t even look like a girl anymore! You look like one of those girl-boys!”
Yeah, yeah. Shush.
Naturally, I heard the stories of how girls in the golden age would grow their hair like Rapunzel and how coconut oil would help me grow my hair back soon so I could look like a girl again and not like a “girl-boy”, so to speak.
Guess what? I cut my hair because I wanted to, and it ain’t the 1970’s anymore.
Deal with it.
Hmph.
- The Betrayal
So when the hair dresser showed me how short she was going to cut (which was just a wee bit below my shoulder and the shortest layer because I wanted an A-line bob) my hair, I thought, “Okay, that’s not too short. It looks just long enough.”
My haircut turned out pretty good and I was, indeed, content.
Well, things went a bit south the next day after I had my first post-haircut bath.
That shortest layer somehow shrunk to the length of my neck.
Now I just have weird, curly hair.
- ‘Mosquito bites’ + Pixie cut = People sometimes mistake you for a boy
No, I do not mean actual mosquito bites.
Yes, I mean “mosquito bites on my chest” kind of ‘mosquito bites’.
This is particularly true when you wear baggy t-shirts because, let’s face it people can’t see those humps, especially from a distance. (Hence, why we get called girl-boys sometimes). Add the short hair to mix, and voila, you are now a boy.
I know, Lily, I hear you.
- What do I do with my hair?
Well that’s not a hard question. You could iron it, curl it, tie it into an awkward ponytail with locks of hair sticking out in odd angles, or maybe try to braid it. Yeah that’s pretty much it. Sure, you get the out-of-this-world hair stylists who can work wonders with short hair, but come on; you have to admit that those stylists are rare God’s gifts.
But all in all, short hair is fun and a little spunky. Never forget the saying; “Out with the old, in with the new.”
