MadPirateBippy
January 18th, 2015, 10:28 PM
So, my decade mark for LHC will be in June, but I lurked for a long time before I joined, and I wasn't an active poster for the last few years. I backed up all my cell phone photos and wanted to show what I did from January 2013 (a bit after I went dark on this site) to my hair till today. I'll post a TL;DR as the second post here about what I learned from my absence at LHC and why I am happy to be back.
So, in late 2012 taking care of my hair started to feel like a burden. It didn't make me feel pretty anymore. I'd also gone through a really rough time, having a miscarriage and loosing my son near the same time. It's hard to give half a damn about your hair when you're dealing with loosing a child. I don't have any pictures of when my hair was at its longest but it was in rough shape- my fine, brittle hair needs frequent oil treatments and s&d's or it splits like crazy, and I hadn't been doing either. I also hadn't been taking care of myself and was eating too much to deal with my grief so I got fatter than I'd like, too. Self care was hard to pull off at that point. It felt like another damn thing to check off my endless to do list every day when what I wanted to do was stay in bed. I knew better than to do a big chop, especially as emotional as I was at the time. I started microtrimming up from upper thigh/past classic/bottom of the butt, and I finally went to a salon and got a couple of feet of ratty ends cut off, snipping it up to my waist.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-55SDM--gIlI/UFJZVt5Hy1I/AAAAAAAAAd8/Ty8DlvJstpM/w413-h553-no/From%2BMy%2BPhone%2B024.JPG
Ken at Hair Mission (Hair Mission 12503 Rampart St Austin, Texas) did that cut, was super sweet, and when I told him he was the first person in 8 years to touch my hair with scissors he told me he was honored. If you're in the Austin area he may be worth looking into if you want a long hair friendly trim, he was very careful not to take off more than I wanted. And he was awesome enough that years of chaos later I remember his name. The guy is good.
Since I wasn't as worried about growth I started to experiment more with styling that might cause damage- hair spray and back combing a bit, among some other things, but I still wore my hair in an easy bun about 90% of the time. Here's a front of face hairstyle picture- a rarity on LHC, no?
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GSGQ6WSGBxY/URw6h2hkIfI/AAAAAAAADEQ/onmQI3J5Ai4/w415-h553-no/DBF86F2E-77E8-4D5D-8AC2-AEF60CC9E9E8.JPG
I was still moderately unhappy so when I thought about it, and remembered in a week or two, I'd take off another inch or so. It was more an agressive microtrim policy that was slowly nibbling length than anything else, and not really well thought out. Given that I'd spent the previous seven years of my life obsessed with long hair, I didn't want to emotionally make a huge chop and regret it.
Then came the Big Chop. I had been thinking about it for months, but the GirlChild was having an issue. We had to cut most of her hair off, and she was about to cry, so I grabbed the scissors and just chopped off a good half of my length. With kitchen sheers. It was a very uneven, ragged haircut that kind of looked like arse. Here I am, half my hair gone, and that expression pretty much sums up what I was thinking at the time-
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mMLEU21fUQs/UTV00N-JEII/AAAAAAAAC-s/E4cPb3evfpQ/w415-h553-no/4BD1977F-A840-4CC0-AB86-1394FA4A6CB2.JPG
Here I am looking sassy in my longish bob.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1qv8S-eGXFA/UTpV1PhpJgI/AAAAAAAAC-s/7tJgf0DVPkg/w415-h553-no/40EA5E53-0648-4D47-8483-F547C9C35B83.JPG
I seriously do not recognize myself in this picture, or most the pictures from this time period. I think I look like one of my friends who is way more awesome than I am, though, so I'm OK with that. This is within an inch or two of the shortest my hair got. I found it highly irritating at this length, too short to put up and keep off my neck.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TJI0iYRCSMM/UTpV7RVOroI/AAAAAAAAC-s/D_9R0np7qvk/w413-h553-no/3701478F-5B4D-4FCB-9890-680AABE7637C.JPG
Not too long after this we became frequent fliers to the hospital. My wife kept getting sick in weird ways. The doctors could not figure out what was going on with her, and she kept having all these strange, unrelated symptoms (they were all related, actually, she has early onset Parkinson's disease, which wiped out like, 20 diagnoses that she'd accumulated over a decade, and gave he one we can't do much with). So, as my wife's health started to deteriorate, I started my program of not so benign neglect. My hair was in a bun most of the time to keep it off my neck, I still had my silk pillowcases from my long hair days, but I didn't do a lot of the other things I knew I needed to do- oilings, deep treatments, s&d's- partly because my hair was short enough it didn't need the babying. As hair is prone to do when you put it up and forget it, it got longer.
A few months ago my wife became completely disabled. We started immediately working on what she can do to give her life purpose and meaning when there's days she can't stand, walk, or use her hands. Right now she's wrapping up her BS in Sociology, she's already gotten early admissions into the #2 Master's degree program in the country for her intended course of study, and she's going for a PhD in clinical counselling. I don't know many women that can go from "You have to quit the job you love and you're going to be in pain for the rest of your life" to applying to graduate schools in two weeks, but my wife is one of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life. She is indomitable in spirit and I am so proud of her. Anyway. Back to hair.
This is the photo I took of the back of my head at a friends wedding in April of 2014. I had bleached the base of my hair, right above the nape of my neck, because why not. I look awful with blond hair but I really like how the blond streaks give some visual interest to my updos and braids. The half up is from an old Torrin Paige tutorial- knots and ladders. One of the first 20 or so she put up, I think. So I still had some of my long hair tricks.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-twttmz2omNA/U3vA329KGbI/AAAAAAAADAo/-OMkMBlvVfo/w413-h553-no/IMG_0855.JPG
Not the best photo, but I was more interested in the wedding than my vanity.
Here's a braid waive/poofy hair picture, where I try to fool people into thinking I have volume, from November 9, 2014
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4ajqZAcMedM/VGIVy6ZEU7I/AAAAAAAAEEQ/HvArnQc0In0/w413-h553-no/IMG_1144.JPG
You can see I'm almost at BSL there. The face shot from that good hair day is here:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3ZsjSAH9IEY/VGIV114whmI/AAAAAAAAEEo/IchVfsoUU00/w415-h553-no/IMG_1146.JPG
Another shot that shows off the blond portion of my hair taken in November of 2014:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--v3C3JjMtpk/VGo3zltlrvI/AAAAAAAAEJg/KVeflStYxCY/w415-h553-no/IMG_1163.JPG
After nearly a decade on LHC my first four stranded braid that was good enough I was willing to admit I'd done it:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0cygjV2_Wa4/VHS02doT3gI/AAAAAAAAEmw/r1WfM3PI_xw/w413-h553-no/IMG_1309.JPG
And hopefully in the next couple of days I can get a decent length shot, because I'm finally at bottom of the bra strap BSL even with my hair in a braid, so I'm firmly in BSL to waist land. So that's what I've been up to in the few years I wasn't really posting. The next post is going to be what I learned through all of this.
So, in late 2012 taking care of my hair started to feel like a burden. It didn't make me feel pretty anymore. I'd also gone through a really rough time, having a miscarriage and loosing my son near the same time. It's hard to give half a damn about your hair when you're dealing with loosing a child. I don't have any pictures of when my hair was at its longest but it was in rough shape- my fine, brittle hair needs frequent oil treatments and s&d's or it splits like crazy, and I hadn't been doing either. I also hadn't been taking care of myself and was eating too much to deal with my grief so I got fatter than I'd like, too. Self care was hard to pull off at that point. It felt like another damn thing to check off my endless to do list every day when what I wanted to do was stay in bed. I knew better than to do a big chop, especially as emotional as I was at the time. I started microtrimming up from upper thigh/past classic/bottom of the butt, and I finally went to a salon and got a couple of feet of ratty ends cut off, snipping it up to my waist.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-55SDM--gIlI/UFJZVt5Hy1I/AAAAAAAAAd8/Ty8DlvJstpM/w413-h553-no/From%2BMy%2BPhone%2B024.JPG
Ken at Hair Mission (Hair Mission 12503 Rampart St Austin, Texas) did that cut, was super sweet, and when I told him he was the first person in 8 years to touch my hair with scissors he told me he was honored. If you're in the Austin area he may be worth looking into if you want a long hair friendly trim, he was very careful not to take off more than I wanted. And he was awesome enough that years of chaos later I remember his name. The guy is good.
Since I wasn't as worried about growth I started to experiment more with styling that might cause damage- hair spray and back combing a bit, among some other things, but I still wore my hair in an easy bun about 90% of the time. Here's a front of face hairstyle picture- a rarity on LHC, no?
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GSGQ6WSGBxY/URw6h2hkIfI/AAAAAAAADEQ/onmQI3J5Ai4/w415-h553-no/DBF86F2E-77E8-4D5D-8AC2-AEF60CC9E9E8.JPG
I was still moderately unhappy so when I thought about it, and remembered in a week or two, I'd take off another inch or so. It was more an agressive microtrim policy that was slowly nibbling length than anything else, and not really well thought out. Given that I'd spent the previous seven years of my life obsessed with long hair, I didn't want to emotionally make a huge chop and regret it.
Then came the Big Chop. I had been thinking about it for months, but the GirlChild was having an issue. We had to cut most of her hair off, and she was about to cry, so I grabbed the scissors and just chopped off a good half of my length. With kitchen sheers. It was a very uneven, ragged haircut that kind of looked like arse. Here I am, half my hair gone, and that expression pretty much sums up what I was thinking at the time-
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mMLEU21fUQs/UTV00N-JEII/AAAAAAAAC-s/E4cPb3evfpQ/w415-h553-no/4BD1977F-A840-4CC0-AB86-1394FA4A6CB2.JPG
Here I am looking sassy in my longish bob.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1qv8S-eGXFA/UTpV1PhpJgI/AAAAAAAAC-s/7tJgf0DVPkg/w415-h553-no/40EA5E53-0648-4D47-8483-F547C9C35B83.JPG
I seriously do not recognize myself in this picture, or most the pictures from this time period. I think I look like one of my friends who is way more awesome than I am, though, so I'm OK with that. This is within an inch or two of the shortest my hair got. I found it highly irritating at this length, too short to put up and keep off my neck.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TJI0iYRCSMM/UTpV7RVOroI/AAAAAAAAC-s/D_9R0np7qvk/w413-h553-no/3701478F-5B4D-4FCB-9890-680AABE7637C.JPG
Not too long after this we became frequent fliers to the hospital. My wife kept getting sick in weird ways. The doctors could not figure out what was going on with her, and she kept having all these strange, unrelated symptoms (they were all related, actually, she has early onset Parkinson's disease, which wiped out like, 20 diagnoses that she'd accumulated over a decade, and gave he one we can't do much with). So, as my wife's health started to deteriorate, I started my program of not so benign neglect. My hair was in a bun most of the time to keep it off my neck, I still had my silk pillowcases from my long hair days, but I didn't do a lot of the other things I knew I needed to do- oilings, deep treatments, s&d's- partly because my hair was short enough it didn't need the babying. As hair is prone to do when you put it up and forget it, it got longer.
A few months ago my wife became completely disabled. We started immediately working on what she can do to give her life purpose and meaning when there's days she can't stand, walk, or use her hands. Right now she's wrapping up her BS in Sociology, she's already gotten early admissions into the #2 Master's degree program in the country for her intended course of study, and she's going for a PhD in clinical counselling. I don't know many women that can go from "You have to quit the job you love and you're going to be in pain for the rest of your life" to applying to graduate schools in two weeks, but my wife is one of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life. She is indomitable in spirit and I am so proud of her. Anyway. Back to hair.
This is the photo I took of the back of my head at a friends wedding in April of 2014. I had bleached the base of my hair, right above the nape of my neck, because why not. I look awful with blond hair but I really like how the blond streaks give some visual interest to my updos and braids. The half up is from an old Torrin Paige tutorial- knots and ladders. One of the first 20 or so she put up, I think. So I still had some of my long hair tricks.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-twttmz2omNA/U3vA329KGbI/AAAAAAAADAo/-OMkMBlvVfo/w413-h553-no/IMG_0855.JPG
Not the best photo, but I was more interested in the wedding than my vanity.
Here's a braid waive/poofy hair picture, where I try to fool people into thinking I have volume, from November 9, 2014
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4ajqZAcMedM/VGIVy6ZEU7I/AAAAAAAAEEQ/HvArnQc0In0/w413-h553-no/IMG_1144.JPG
You can see I'm almost at BSL there. The face shot from that good hair day is here:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3ZsjSAH9IEY/VGIV114whmI/AAAAAAAAEEo/IchVfsoUU00/w415-h553-no/IMG_1146.JPG
Another shot that shows off the blond portion of my hair taken in November of 2014:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--v3C3JjMtpk/VGo3zltlrvI/AAAAAAAAEJg/KVeflStYxCY/w415-h553-no/IMG_1163.JPG
After nearly a decade on LHC my first four stranded braid that was good enough I was willing to admit I'd done it:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0cygjV2_Wa4/VHS02doT3gI/AAAAAAAAEmw/r1WfM3PI_xw/w413-h553-no/IMG_1309.JPG
And hopefully in the next couple of days I can get a decent length shot, because I'm finally at bottom of the bra strap BSL even with my hair in a braid, so I'm firmly in BSL to waist land. So that's what I've been up to in the few years I wasn't really posting. The next post is going to be what I learned through all of this.