chicken scratch: Surprise! ...And I still have a place to live

Since about 2008 I've been growing out my hair to donate it. I was doing well and on track until December of '08 when I went in for a trim and the guy basically gave me a mullet. For the first time ever, I'd gone back to get it fixed. Now, this was definitely not the first time I'd been unhappy with a cut, or shed multiple hairs about the loss of my locks, but I felt confident that a mullet was not a style I could rock. Not even in Athens. And of all the places I've lived, Athens is definitely the only place I could have gotten away with it.

Maybe I really missed out on a golden opportunity.

Maybe. Not?

So, it basically got cut to chin length.

I've been growing it out ever since and it has been more than long enough to donate for several years now. But I got attached.

And Tom told me I'd be single if I ever cut my hair short.

So, I did what any normal person would do.

I cut off about a foot of my hair while he was out of town for a couple of days on work.

Surprise!!

And I still have a place to live.

But really, he deserved it. That's what he gets for complaining about me shedding on an hourly basis.

Luckily, it's growing on him. It's been about two weeks and he finally told me yesterday that my hair looked cute. Twice. In one day. It's a miracle. This is after two weeks of him telling me he hates it, I look old, and I look like my mom (not that that's an insult). And he's been running his fingers through it more than in the two and a half years that he had the privilege of being in such close proximity to my lengthy locks. So that's a win, I guess. I think it's because it's super wild and curly now and he kinda likes that. Reminds him of Andie MacDowell and she is his "free pass," which I am totally okay with.

It is a little wild and unpredictable and I'm still not sure exactly what to do with it.

Hair cuts that drastic should come with instructions.

And signs that say, "Yes, the difference you're noticing on me is that I've lost 12 inches of hair."

It's amazing the amount of people who a) haven't noticed at all (like my boss) and b) can't put their finger on what it is that's different about me.

I was so intrigued by this that I looked up the psychology behind it and this article made me feel a little bit better. Basically, we're used to recognizing people in different situations, and that's a good thing. We need to be able to recognize people when their appearance changes, other wise we'd have to wear the same clothes or hair style every single day. But, when it comes to people who know you intimately, they know your features so well that they have a hard time recognizing you when you do significantly change something about your appearance.

This happened the other day with my mom. She was searching for me in a sea of people and was basically staring right at me and she had no idea.

On another note, while I was searching for explanations why people don't recognize hair cuts (because I almost always notice haircuts) I found a Facebook group about it. No, I didn't join because a word in the group title is misspelled and I can't support that.

On the plus side, my Facebook profile picture is now accurate again. That's what happens when you don't change it for five years....

Before: