In my grief class we had to write a list of losses, not just ones related to death. One of the losses I wrote about was getting a haircut. I remember crying over bad haircuts, and leaving the salon only to pull my hair into a pony tail for the next three months. Sometimes it wasn't long enough to pull into a pony tail, which was even more tragic. Usually I approach a haircut as a way to magically transform myself into something like this:
But now I know what Reality Therapy is, and the reality is, I don't have perfectly curly hair. Nor do I have perfectly straight hair. The reality also is that I don't want to spend a half hour drying my hair, or flat ironing it. I want to be able to spend time at the gym, and as little time in the gym locker room as possible. Or I need to be able to bolt out of the door for a job. So with this criteria in mind, I set up a hair cut appointment.
Before the haircut, my hair looked like this:
I took in two pictures that represented wavy hair, that I felt were closer to the reality of my hair, and explained to the hair stylist that I wanted a 5 minute hairstyle.
I figured maybe a few layers and some styling cream, and I could pull out the waves in my hair like Anne Hathaway. What I missed was the reality of length.... since my new haircut feels alot shorter to me than either of those pictures conveyed :)
The reality is that my hair will grow back. Maybe if I am lucky, while it is growing out, it will become magically straight.... or beautifully curly :)
