Hair

What I started with.

One of the first blogs that I had read about thru hiking as a female had a little snippet on hair. The recommendation for hair was to cut it off into a cute little pixy cut. Cute little pixy cut does not work so well for my, ahem, fat face. My hair was longer than I remember ever having it, and I had worked so hard to grow it out. Cutting it super short was not really an option.

Nobody will ever know if I'm having a bad hair day,

For work, I keep my hair in a messy (and totally unattractive) bun which is probably really bad for your hair. It doesn't matter a whole lot because my hair is kept very neat and tidy under a scrub cap all day long. On average I probably give my hair attention two days a week. In order to help with the after work don't-want-to-do-my-hair but want-it-to-look-awesome, I bought a wig. Unfortunately, wigs are heavy, uncomfortable, hot, and I find myself adjusting them all the time. Besides all that, I can't wear them without feeling the obligation to let everyone know that I'm wearing one.

In a perfect world, this is how I wanted my hair to look naturally. Ha. 

I set out on a mission to learn how to french braid my hair. I remember my mom french braiding my hair as a little girl and unfortunately, I never grew accustomed to the way it looked and didn't think it fit my personality. Despite that, I watched a couple of youtube videos and gave it a shot. It looked bad: I had a couple of very thin pieces awkwardly mixed in with some thick pieces and it didn't look so great, and I didn't care (that day). For each hike we did, I tried it again, and actually got much better at braiding than I expected. From the back, and from the front, I wasn't happy with what it looked like.

I'm not very good at french braiding.

I can't put my hair up in a messy bun because we have decided to wear hats to protect from the sun and the hat doesn't fit well over it. I don't like a pony tail resting at the base of my neck, either. I felt I had one remaining option: short haircut. We read some blogs and reviews about hiking and haircuts and the consensus is; how do you want your hair to look after the hike? I've had a pixy cut before and vowed never to do it again. For most of my life, my hair has been short or shoulder length, so I settled on chin length this go around.

In the end, I'm not sure it will work out super well for the trail. It might be too short to put up, or too long that it will get in the way. I figure a hat will help keep it in place and it will probably look fine. Regardless, I am happy with it because it is much easier to deal with and cooler than long hair.

And now its short!