My Hairy Situation

You just never know what you are going to get.  This is true with children, and gardens, and lately my hair.  I seem to be having a bad hair season.  And the thing is I just don't really care that much about my hair.  I just want some kind of cut and style where I don't have to think about it, and definitely don't get frustrated by it.
My first choice would be to cut it off pretty short so I can just run my fingers through it after swimming and not have to dry or style it, and it would always be up off my neck and out of my face.

How it was last July, just a plain old bob.

For the past year I have had it a bit longer in an above-the-shoulders-bob that HAS to be blow dried, preferably with some kind of styling product, and then touched up with the curling iron to get it to behave.

How it was for the past year until this April -

It only takes me about 10 minutes, but still, that's 10 minutes out of my life I will never get back, spent on my HAIR!  But I guess I must have some vanity because I will say I get a lot of compliments on this style (see above photo).  I had my last cut a couple days before our trip to St. John.  I had scheduled an appointment with my usual stylist, for a highlight and cut so it would look nice on our trip.  But she ended up canceling the appointment and I was stuck so had to go to someone else at the last minute.  Well it was a nightmare.  She had to try twice to do the highlighting, wrong product the first time, and then spent over an hour cutting.  Panda usually has my color and cut done and styled in just an hour and 15.  This time took over 2 1/2 hours!  I should have known something was wrong when she put OIL on my hair . . . I have never had to do that.  Turns out the double highlight process really fried my hair and it was crisp and frizzy.  She also cut my layers way too short so now they just curl out away from my head in unruly waves . . .  it now takes me more time and more product to get it even close to how it was.  Plus the layers are too short to pull back for gardening, running, etc.


Note how frizzy it is and sticking out half way up the side . . . and this is with a LOT of product and no shampoo . . . and felt like straw!

I used to wear it longer, which was nice because no real styling involved and I could pull it back.

But my husband would say I should get a cut so it would look styled . . . not really sure what he means but he has not complimented my hair since  . . .  wow it has been a long time, I think since 2005 when I came home from a cut and my hair was still poofy from the stylist.  He seems to like poofy styled hair.  And when I have it long it usually just ends up looking sloppy like this

Hmmm, maybe that is what my husband is objecting to when he says it doesn't look
"styled".

 So it has been driving me crazy and I was about to schedule an appointment to cut it all off, but then I looked at the photos from my son's wedding (happy third anniversary today!) when it was pretty short and I have to say I am a bit shocked at how matronly it looks.  I mean I accept that I am in my fifties but I don't think I really look as old as I do in this photo:I

Ick!  Luckily no one looking at me that day . . . and that dress, what was I thinking? It was short at Kristen's wedding too though I like the cut a bit better - this is right after it was cut, taken at her bridal luncheon - so I hadn't tried to style it - never came out quite this nice for me.  But I didn't like it how it was suddenly longer in the back.

The thing is I really actually like my hair.  Usually it is soft and shiny and manageable and IF there are any gray hairs in there they don't really show up (yet).

But I wish I could cut it super short like this pic of my sister

only have it be my color, not her gray - although it looks fabulous on her!  But I am afraid that looks close enough to the previous photo to not come out right.  Plus I still remembering my mom telling my my head looks too small for my body when it is really short.  What to do??  I suppose I can work on shrinking my body . . .  and then if that goes well maybe I can get it cut so I look like this

Don't you think I could look like this?? (I deleted the photo as it was showing up in my facebook blog share and I can't figure out how to change it)