An exact representation of my last break-up haircut.
Today’s topic: The Break-up Haircut
I am a strong believer in The Break-up Haircut. It washes That Man right out of my hair both literally and figuratively. It makes me feel renewed, refreshed. I can look in the mirror and see someone a bit different and, in a really self-centred way, it makes me feel like That Man no longer knows what I really look like.
When I lost my first real boyfriend, I went from hair-to-the-waist to a blunt bob just below my chin.
When I lost my True Love, I cut a fringe into my hippy hair.
When I went through the throes of disentangling from 15 years of abuse, I grew my hair from pixie cut to long, long, long to show myself how much time I had gained On My Own. Free at last.
Then, this past January, when I lost the One I thought was my Bestest, Closest Friend, I went in for a haircut.
And it was a total disaster.
My one instruction: No Spock from Star Trek Fringe, thank you. But the hairdresser was soooo much younger and cooler than me that she gave me what I now know is called ‘The Frame’ because she didn’t like my ‘Epic Wedge’. She had hair the colour of watered down cotton candy: perhaps I should have known.
I HATED it. I went home and spent hours pulling at those poor truncated hairs, willing them to lengthen. I saw myself in the mirror and HATED it. The harshness of my face compounding all the loss I felt.
Now I realise, in my world of symbolism, I went for that haircut too soon. It was only when The Frame had finally grown out into something resembling a fringe that I realised I had pulled the trigger in the midst of The End, not At The End. I had to find out The Truth about that relationship before it could be categorised as truly over. Before I could really wash it out of my hair.
I believe there’s a saying that fits that, something along the lines of ‘the truth shall set you free and lead to good hair’.
In conclusion, the break up haircut is therapy. Good, useful, effective therapy. But as with therapy, timing and the ability of the therapist to listen are everything.
1000 days 