My Worst Haircut Experience

There are several times that I could tell you about major mishaps that I've had with my hair, such as:

The time when I was a young adult and I lived with roommates. One time I had forgotten to replenish my shampoo, so I used some of my roommate's Castile shampoo. Half of my hair fell out and my scalp snowed huge flakes. I had to go to a dermatologist to get help. He told me to use Ionil, which corrected the problem.

Or when in my mid twenties, two weeks before I was to marry, I went to get my hair permed by a lady whose family had caused the split in our church, in an effort to help mend the rift between them and my foster parents, who were the pastors. Due to the fact that I'd been swimming in an overly chlorinated pool for two weeks, let's
just say that my hair didn't respond very well to the fact that she had put a regular perm on my color-treated hair. It became a cross between elastic latex and a fused Brillo pad.

I had to go to another hairdresser and get my long hair cut off. This didn't help relations between the two sides. My future husband suggested that we have our heads shaved for the wedding. I opted for walking down the aisle with a one inch pixy cut. Moral of the story, don't use your hair as a peace offering since it might backfire, especially just before your wedding.

Then there's also the time, when our son was young, a friend of ours accidentally introduced lice to our house and I was threatened with losing my long, thick hair. Everyone kept telling me to just cut it off. I chose, instead, to use the lice shampoo, mayonnaise that had been recommended, the comb that came with the shampoo and my own finger nails. My fingernails were more effective than the comb. I kept pulling the nasty little things out until they were gone. I kept my hair.

But the hair episode I'm going to tell you about is when I was in my early twenties. I had a friend who lived in the other half of the house I occupied. She was going back into hairdressing and I was her guinea pig. She'd move my hair around, showing me different cuts and styles to refresh her memory.

Then, one day, she told me that the salon she worked for was offering inexpensive and free haircuts to give her needed practice and observation. I agreed to go in for her. My hair was long enough to sit on and one length. I was hoping to have it cut to my waist in a layered style. Well...Neither she nor I had realized his attitude to long hair, until he had finished cutting my hair and I looked in the mirror. I saw it cut to the bottom edge of my ears and definitely not layered.

Before, I either wore my hair down and flowing or up in a ponytail or a bun. After, I had to get a blow dryer and a styling brush and learn how to style my hair. I didn't have the style re-trimmed when it grew out. In fact, I was in the process of growing it back out when it was fried in the perm incident.

A lot of hairstylists I've encountered don't like my long hair. They tell me that it's thick and there's a lot of it. They want to keep it cut short. My present hairdresser told me that women our age ought to have short hair. I reminded her that I'm growing my hair back out and I only see her two times a year to keep her from getting too scissor happy. I also stopped using perms, since I realized that I have wavy hair. Sometimes, I get my hair streaked, sometimes I don't. But, I don't swim in chlorinated water anymore.

To make sure that I don't have the problem with my hair falling out again, I'm careful what I use on my hair. I use Suave's Professional line, the System Biolage shampoo and conditioner. Sally's Beauty Supply also carries their own version, which is nice. If my hair gets too dry I use VO5's hot oil Shower Works treatment that doesn't need
to be heated up. I also scrunch LA Looks Gel for Curl into my wet hair, since other gels are too heavy and flatten my hair. I let it dry naturally, then use a 1 1/2 inch curling iron on my bangs and ends, since they tend to be unruly. I recently switched my hairspray to Rave, which is by Suave, since Suave discontinued their professional line of hair-sprays, probably because it clogged up the sprayer heads and rendered them useless.

My hair is down to my waist in a layered cut. It was still growing when it was chopped off, so I don't know how long it can get. But I'm letting it grow until it stops.

Sources:

Ionil
http://www.healthpoint.com/divisions/derm/prodOthers.cfm

http://www.suave.com/

http://www.vo5haircare.com/main.aspx

http://www.lalooks.com/

http://www.sallybeauty.com/