10/17/08

Tag you're it

So after a busy day of Special Olympics Bowling, carpools taxi-ing, laundry and an orchestra concert, I am finally ready to confess about bad hair.

My friend Sara has challenged me along with Rachel, Shannon, Kalynne and Big Mamma to describe our worst hair disaster. I bet you have been there. Well, most of you. It always happens when you crave a change. I have to say my sister-in-law has had the exact SAME hair since she was 8 (42 years ago). She looks the same now as she did at 17... long, BLOND, parted down the middle, silky smooth hair. Maybe it has varied in length by a few inches over the years. Hair disaster for her? Oh no, they cut 1/2 inch too much!

Me on the other hand? No, as Sara put it, she has seen me with lots of different 'dos in the 10 years I have known her. My personal philosophy? Go for it! It's just hair, it will grow back.

So to play along, I decided to take a trip down memory lane looking for my best disaster. Out came the photo album my mom gave me a few years ago as a Christmas gift. It is full of all the old pictures of me. What a trip! I know, you want to see them, all of them, pictures of hair from hell. However, in good conscience, I can not post forever to the Internet the horror of my mushroom-cut in 1990 (+ a 50 lb pregnancy gain... beautiful). Nor can I share the myriad bad perms of the 80's-especially the spiral perm I had just a week before my wedding. I won't share the poodle-perm short cuts of the late 70's or "chick-mullet". That was a personal best. After a few years of having my ponytail freeze in the morning after swim practice and before school, I began my super short pixie days. Easy maintenance!

This also made my mother happy --- her personal mantra for all of us, "You look so much nicer with shorter hair..."

I finally ran across this lovely picture. Me at 12 years old. See how smart I looked sporting these rocking glasses? I was so proud of them. This picture represents the end of my who-cares hair days and the beginning of my gooberhood. I was on the edge of cool for so long. This was 1977, there was no "product" then... just a little Breck or Flex Shampoo and you were done.

What a great horror pic to post.

Then, it hit me, holy shit!! I have the same haircut today! Proof positive? A picture of me taken at TONIGHT's orchestra concert. See Sean hiding behind me? He's invisible isn't he? All 6'3" of him. What goes around comes around I guess.

We'll discuss the grey later, and my recent decision to go natural (see how my hair is now at least 3 colors?) and maybe a little philosophy on self esteem too...




So now I tag:
Bridget, who also "looks so much nicer with short hair..."
Julie, a sister from another mother...
Lori who has a great hair cut now but I know has a secret or two..
the other Sarah who might take a break from her thoughtful, cerebral posts to share a story or two...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't even get me started considering I have had the same brown, blond, red football helmet FOREVER!!!

Just Julie said...

Oh i have a doosie of a photo op here! BUT will be next week when I can publish for all to see. Have a great weekend!

Lori said...

oh lordy...let me drag the picture out, if i did not already destroy it!
so many stories to share in the haircut dept.
can't wait to get home and work on this post! thanks!

Lori said...

i don't know how you got me to put up a bad hair pic!

Shelly said...

I got here from sara's post.

my dh was looking over my shoulder and said: hey, that looks like you back in 7th grade! [we went to grade school together ;)]
So, yes, nice hair *and* nice specs. Those are rockin'! I feel like these looks make us look like we're 40 back then! LOL

Shelly said...

Regarding my post on Chocolate Cake: THANK YOU! I'm not alone! Nice to know that a "neighbor" gets things that are obscure to most - although they shouldn't be ;)

Sara said...

Oh, I have many hair disasters, but the best (worst!) was when I went from nice, safe, shoulder-length to -- and yes, it was days before my senior prom -- a cut and a perm that left me looking like a poodle's b*tt! I was trying to look like Rachel Ward!!!

Rachel said...

What the HELL was up with all of us, who wore glasses, in the late 70's early 80's??? I will have to dig up a pic of me in glasses that took over my face just like yours did. Also, I have had the same haircut (a bob with bangs) of varying lengths from chin length to a few inches past my shoulders, my whole life. What made it exciting were all the different colors. Purple was my fave!