a good decision

it was time for a change. i knew it, i thought about it, i talked about it, i imagined it. over the years, i have made small changes to my hair style that only those close to me who saw me every day noticed. i parted my hair in the middle, i parted my hair to the side, i had some highlights, i cut it shorter, i grew it longer. no big deal. but i wanted a change. i have an oval face and i think my forehead is too big. for years, i had tried to let some of my hair lay over my forehead, but it was difficult to get that to work - it all depended on how i dried my hair, how wet it was before i dried it, what the weather was like, etc. there were good days and bad days.

so when everyone had the sweeping bangs, i decided to try it out, but it didn't work. my hair just didn't want to cooperate and part like i wanted it to. so for a month i just dealt with a hair style that didn't really work and waited for the side bangs to grow out some. then i got an idea. while looking through fashion magazines i noticed that some models had bangs - not side sweeping bangs, but straight bangs across the forehead. i liked the look. then every morning on my way to work on the bus i noticed a fashion poster at the bus shelter on 72nd and madison that featured a close up shot of a girl wearing a white turtleneck who had bangs. i really liked that haircut and wondered what it would look like on me.

so one day in december i stood in front of the mirror and folded some of my hair back and tried to picture what i would look like with bangs. then i took some scissors and snipped my hair, then i snipped some more, and more, until i had done it - i had cut the hair at the front of my face and created a new hairstyle for myself; i had bangs. i was pretty excited. i thought it looked good and it was something new. at first, it was difficult to get used to it. i wasn't used to feeling anything on my forehead and i was always wondering if my hair was still in place when i walked away from the mirror.

i went into work the next day and many of my coworkers noticed the change. even people i had never talked to before asked if i got a haircut and said they liked it. i know whenever someone gets a haircut, even if it's just a trim, the natural reaction is, "did you get a haircut? it looks good." but i felt like people were being genuine about my haircut, especially when people i had never talked to before were telling me it looked good. i felt pretty happy. i took a picture of myself and sent it to my family. my mom loved it, but that could be because it was the same haircut i had when i was 5 years old when she was in charge of my hair style. then i saw some of my friends and they said i looked different and that my haircut looked great. i went out to bars and random guys complimented me on my haircut. i heard comments like, "i usually don't like bangs, but they look good on you" and "not everyone could pull off wearing bangs, but it works on you." oh well if that was just a "line" from the guys - the fact that they noticed my new haircut was good enough for me.

i really had no idea that my haircut was that big of a deal. i just wanted something different that hid my forehead. i saw the haircut on other people and thought i'd try it out on myself, and i guess it worked. it's been 3 months since i created my new hairstyle and i'm still getting used to it. if it's windy outside and my hair blows around, i still wonder how my bangs look and i'm constantly looking in the mirror on my desk at work to make sure they look ok. and i get irritated with them sometimes. i have to take an extra step every morning when i'm getting ready to straighten them. sometimes i just don't want anything on my forehead and get annoyed by the feeling of the hair resting on my forehead. and i don't know what i'm going to do in the summer when it's hot out and my forehead gets sweaty or i'm tanning and don't want to get a tan line where my bangs are. but the thought of the excruciating process of growing my bangs out is not something i could deal with right now.

i know bangs were a trend over the winter in fashion ads, on runways, and with celebs (think nelly furtado and gwen stefani 2 months ago). i've been wondering if the trend has passed and if my hairstyle is going to become the next chunky shoes or poncho sweaters, but for the past couple weeks i've noticed posters in the subway stations for french connection. i think fcuk is a respectable, fashion-forward company (wish i could afford the clothes). so i was reassured to see that the ads they are running now feature a group of stylish, hip young adults, including some girls with bangs. and the posters i've seen don't just show one girl with bangs. it's more like 4 out of 10 of the girls have bangs - the same hairstyle that i have. that's significant. now i can continue to feel proud of my haircut at least through the spring 2007 season.