When I was in grade school, probably about 10 or 11 years old, my dad took me to get my hair cut. I was entering that really awkward tween stage and feeling kind of low so I decided to spring for a hair cut that would make me feel older and more sophisticated. How many of you constantly find yourself disappointed by a haircut because you’d secretly hoped it would transform you into the “Cinderella” version of yourself but in the end it was still just you there underneath the new ‘do? I’ve experienced it more times than I’d care to count – and this was probably the first time.
The guy at the salon suggested a pixie cut which I immediately decided was perfect because what could be more beautiful and delicate than a pixie? I pictured myself blossoming into a chic Tinker Bell-esque beauty. All my problems were going to go away with this haircut, you know. But I left looking more like this…
Word of warning to young girls and their mothers: A hair cut this short on a girl with no curves (i.e. pre-puberty) will not make her more feminine. Especially if she’s not one of those “girly” girls who wears makeup or skirts and dresses on a regular basis. This hair cut is the reason a lunch lady once called me YOUNG MAN and pretty much ruined my self esteem for years. No longer was I the “Winnifred” of my Wonder Years, because I now worried that I looked more like Fred Savage.
You think it can’t get worse but I haven’t told you about how the back was basically a tiny little rat tail. Oh yes, I am not lying. It was pretty bad folks. But a good thing came from this very bad haircut. I have no fear now when it comes to my hair – I’ve cut it short again many times and I actually usually like it – now that I’ve got those blessed curves. In my mind, it really can’t get any worse than that awful hair cut which I’ve already survived and lived to tell the tale of. So hit me with your best shot, is what I figure. I’ll get over it. I’ve had worse.
And I have to say, looking back on this picture – it’s not as bad as I remembered it. I’m not loving it, as I’m not prone to loving pictures of myself and the memories are still strong enough to make me shudder a little. But if I’m going to be honest with myself and everyone else reading this (all three of you), it wasn’t that bad. It was probably mostly only that bad in my mind…
But sometimes in my darker moments of Jen-dom, I’m secretly still this disappointed little girl who hoped a hair cut might magically transform me into the girl I wanted to be but ended up with a rat tail and a bit of a complex instead. No matter how many times my husband tells me I’m beautiful, I usually still feel like a gawky pre-teen, uncomfortable in her own skin, waiting, waiting for the Cinderella Moment of my story…
But I think it’s just a matter of perspective – that we already are Cinderella to everyone else – and the only one seeing the pumpkin and the rags underneath our self esteem and emotional baggage is ourselves.
What’s the worst haircut you’ve had?
