Margaret,
I had long hair for many, many years, accompanied by a horror of six-weekly hairdresser appointments and what might be done during them. One day I awoke with the realisation that I had been wearing it up, in a bun, for a long time due to the mess of having it out, the trail on my socked heels of shed hairs through the house, all much the same as you. I had tried foisting the decision onto my husband by asking his opinion on a scissors job to no satisfactory result. He didn't know. Maybe not. Up to me. Yes, it was up to me. I was no longer going to be defined by my long hair or anybody's admiration for it. They didn't wear it, grow it, care for it. Me was under it. And over it. Presented myself at a hairdresser's unannounced and unknown, looking dishevelled and a bit s-tressed, saying I wanted to have my hair cut off. How short? All the way, I stated firmly. The hairdresser stopped his work and stepped over and gave me an immediate appointment for which I waited ten minutes. He refused to take it above my collar that day. I pranced home with the long plait and left it on the table. Out I went to show a friend, the one who had said Julian was the best cutter but I'd have to wait weeks!! On my return I found my husband with his hands over his face, unwilling to see what the plait meant. He took a look and smiled, "Oh, it's fine!!" He had thought it was going to be an inch long, panicked. Occasionally I wish for a moment I had that lovely long hair still. Just for ONE moment. It is so easy to wash EVERY morning and no sodden bun still wet at night. I have such high regard for Julian that I agree with anything he suggests and am always happy about it. I suggest you are ready to go the chop too. It's easy to cast about for opinions but if you are still fantasising about the freedom of short hair, go for it. It's you. You are still there with your hair cut off and it is still growing at the same rate. In five or six weeks you'll realise how fast that is and how quickly it would grow long again if that appealed to you. The decision to cut revealed to me how I'd hidden behind the hair and the image it projected which I'd come to be vaguely irritated by. I was asserting myself on my terms and perhaps issuing a slight challenge to be looked at anew.
