You know when it’s been a while since you’ve had a haircut, and your hair is at the awkward length, where it’s not short and stylish nor is it long and flowing? It just kind of lays there somewhere near your shoulders, bothering the absolute crap out of you? You know you need to either make a drastic cut decision or wait it out until it’s long enough to stop being awkward. But either way, you know you might be be unhappy with the decision. We’ve all had awful, snap-decision haircut nightmares, and we also know how annoying it is to wait for it to grow.
The other day, as I was contemplating what to do with my hair in this exact situation, I realized that my life is also in this same kind of hair limbo. Like I’m not really an adult, but I’m definitely not a kid, and I have no idea where my life is going. I can keep working several part time jobs for a few more years, living at home with the parental units, and hope that one of these jobs offers me a full-time position and I can move out. OR I can make a super drastic career change, pack up my stuff, and high-tail it the EFF out of here.
Scenario 1: Make a Drastic Change. No one really likes drastic, spontaneous changes. Some people might get a high from the anxiety, but afterwards we generally have some kind of reservations. You’ve gotten the haircut that you saw on Pinterest that looked SUPER CUTE on Kaley Cuoco, but not so much on you the next morning. You’ve cut your own bangs in an attempt to be “in vogue,” but then you end up growing them back out after a week because they’re annoying and only make extra work for you. The same thing happens when you make drastic life decisions without too much thought. You know you’re in a place where some kind of decision needs to be made, and quitting your job to go on an Eat, Pray, Love self-discovery tour sounds REALLY GREAT…in theory. Or you have a phone interview with a company in another time zone, and the thought of leaving everyone and everything behind to start a clean slate in a new state sounds ideal. And maybe it is, but deep down you’re afraid it’s going to end like the Kaley-wannabe haircut.
Scenario 2: Wait it Out. This can be torturous. Your last haircut was awful and you vowed you’d never cut it again like that. You’ve convinced yourself that in just a few months, everything will be okay again. You think back to that time you blew all of your tax returns on a shopping spree instead of putting them towards student loans. Delayed gratification was never exactly your specialty, but you think maybe this time will be worth the wait. You love where you live, and you eventually want to move out and be a sort-of-responsible adult. You think for a while before quitting your job or packing a suitcase and getting on the next jet to anywhere. You know that eventually you will get that full-time job, the apartment, and the husband/wife/ whatever. You’re okay with waiting for a little while longer, waiting for that hair to grow out.
These decisions are never easy or fun, but ultimately you have to decide whether to chop the hair and make a change, or wait it out and see what happens. If you make the wrong decision, life is just like your hair: it grows back, so don’t worry.
But really, you should know whether or not you can rock the pixie cut.
