And I wish that was a joke with some witty punchline, but it really isn't.
Yesterday I woke up and realised my hair was going to that awful place where it droops and needs to be reshaped and trimmed and such, which for like the tail end of second year/beginning of third year I decided to just leave rather than deal with leaving me with awful droopy hair, but this time I decided to sort it out so it would grow perfectly for the end of the university year. Good idea right Stu?
Wrong.
Very wrong.
Last time I got my hair cut I went to this random little male barber place I found in Bath so I thought if they did it alright last time then they'd be fine. So I walk in and the guy recognises me, although it was 5 months ago, and says that last time his friend cut my hair. I responded by saying I'd be willing to come back later when his friend was around but he was insistent that he knew what he was doing. So, me being naive, decided to trust the random man with scissors. At first it was ok, but before I knew it he had cut so much out of my hair it was unreal. Not even evenly! It was wonky and disproportionate and just generally awful. He had no clue. But it was too late. My hair was ruined.
I ran to the bus stop and jumped on the bus home, hoping no one would see me, then I ran into Ceri my housemate and I put my hood up to avoid her seeing my awful new do. I got home, washed, dried, combed it but no good. It was a shit haircut. Ceri, being wonderfully blunt and my saving grace this day, agreed and the more time we spent looking at it the worse and worse it got. At this point I'm almost in tears, manly tears obviously, over the thought of my ruined hair. She came up with three solutions: 1) leave it (not an option!), 2) salvage it, 3) cut it all off. Number two seemed the most appealing. Especially as now I had already missed the length window for my June nice looking afro plan and it meant that it would not grow long enough for me to shave it for charity in the summer like I had wanted to do for years. So now that these two things were missed opportunities I guess the length didn't matter to me too much, as long as it was even.
So anyway we book an appointment for Toni And Guy and I tell the lovely woman what happened, she looks concerned and warns me that I may have to go really short to get it to be remotely even. Luckily, Ceri had already prepared me for this via previous coaching on the walk over. Due to the awful proportions I received in that awful first haircut the only way for it to be proportionate, was, indeed to go really short. So at the end I'm left with the hair I have now and I kind of like it. Mainly when I compare it to the awful haircut that only Ceri saw and just how awful it was. And on the walk home a drunk tramp came up to me and shouted 'you used to have an afro!' and then said he liked my new haircut. So I'm getting positive feedback already. It'll take some getting used to and now I won't get 'you're that afro guy ! I see you allllll the time!' and I won't have it as the constant icebreaker in conversations, or I won't be able to play with it in lectures when I'm bored. However, I can wear hats! I haven't been able to wear hats since secondary school. I think I'll be able to cope. Plus it'll grow back. I don't know if I'll ever manage to grow it long again, depends what career I end up getting into and their hair rules I guess, but hopefully by the end of the university year I'll have some sort of small fro-like thing, even if its just for the pictures.
Yesterday I had to come to terms with the inevitable. I knew this was going to have to happen someday. Like if I want a big fancy job I can't have a massive afro, let's be honest. I just think it was unfortunate (and distressing for me) that it had to happen not of my own free will, more like I was forced into this new haircut by some man who has no idea what he is doing. Thank you to the woman in Toni And Guy who saved my life (well not really, but you know what I mean) and Ceri for being much needed emotional support throughout the long day (I'm so dramatic). But either way you live, you learn and you do the best you can with what you've got and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
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