A wild hair of an idea.

Today I volunteered to receive a free haircut from a local salon in exchange for being a "hair cut model." Basically, a complete newbie will be cutting my hair. I get to choose from a book of styles and can keep it longish, which I fully intend to do so I can keep it all pulled back if this wild hair of an idea goes awry, which it very well could.

I may after all find out that you get what you pay for.

While I know other women, including probably most of my female friends (and my guy friends for that matter too) would never in a million years go for this, my attitude about hair is completely laissez-faire. I get it cut maybe once every two years — or more. I just don't really care about having it styled either. Keeping it all pulled back all the time works for me. I never blow dry, curl or dye it. I don't do anything to it besides brush it and wash it. Which means, in hairdressing terms, my hair is extremely healthy: It's in mint condition. It's also extremely easy to maintain — and cheap in terms of both money and time.

But, it does need to be cut when it gets too long and heavy. And I am at that point, so by volunteering I scored a free haircut which is great because I don't want to pay an obsurd amount for taking several inches off the bottom. That shouldn't cost 60 bucks! And, if it goes awry at least it will be at a length that I can keep it pulled back.

The deal is that a complete novice will do the hair as part of training. The salon owner I called today, after seeing a blurb in our local newspaper about this need for 'hair models,' said that the hair people practice on wigs first then real people and they are looking for volunteers to be the real people-guinea pigs. I have to go to the salon in the next couple of days to have my photo taken and look through the book to choose a hair cut. Should be interesting!

Talk About A Wild Hair

Now that the cat is out of the bag about what I research, I suppose the occassional hair reference or post devoted entirely to grooming will not come as a surprise.

I made an appointment to get my hair chopped off today. It's been a long time in the making and is now long enough that I could easily lose ten inches and still be able to pull it back in a short ponytail. I will donate my chopped hair to Locks of Love, the outfit that makes wigs for kids with cancer.

Although I like having long hair because it requires little maintenance, it is not totally maintenance free. I spend less than a minute "styling" it so that part is wonderful, but it is getting so long and heavy that the time it takes to wash and brush it is becoming a nuissance. Her Royal Highness the Newfsance can tell when I am brushing my hair because of the telltale sounds. I will admit that somedays I just braid it without brushing it because I don't feel like spending 20 masochistic minutes making it smooth. It is also incredibly heavy and since I don't blow it dry, it remains heavy for a long time until the water evaporates. I usually wash it in the evening so it can dry while I sleep.

I am ready for my summer buzz cut. When we get Zam the Spaniel buzzed for the summer he comes home with a fun short do we call the puppy cut. The few ounces he loses seem to come back in the form of pounds more youthful energy. We'll see what the puppy cut does for me!

Here's how it will look: