Earlier today, at work, I started thinking about my hair journey over the past year. What I mean by "hair journey" is that it has been just about a year since I have cut it. Being a twenty-something male with longer than average hair has taught me a few things and opened my eyes to a few more.
This conversation with my friend happened earlier today.
Read it:
If you are wondering just how long my hair is at the moment, this is all you get:
Yes, those are my bangs. Again, I hate "selfies" so much that I will not even compromise for this blog.
With that, here are the top ten things I have come to realize as an adult male with long hair.
1. As far as business is concerned, you must be a bit more on-point and force your intelligence on anyone within that realm of your life, especially older generations. They have a tendency to not take you quite as seriously if you are a man with long hair. The caveat to confronting this potential block is how well you can sneak in the fact that you are growing your hair for Locks of Love (which is why I am doing it). I have not had a single person fault me in the least bit for my hair being the way it is after they understand the charity behind it; and most want to know more about the organization.
2. You get better natural highlights and low lights from the sun when your hair is longer. Though you cannot tell from the picture above, my hair is pretty dynamic concerning color and changes from nearly a light brown in the winter to a lightly bleached blonde in the summer months. The longer my hair has become, the more defined the colors. The weird thing about my hair color is how I come from a family of either jet-black or dark brown hair on both sides of my family, but am somehow, very much blonde. Maybe that also has something to do with every member of my family having shoddy vision, yet I somehow came out 20/15? Genetics are weird.
3. Women flirt with me much more often. I cannot say that my hair is the biggest contributing factor to this, because at the same time I started growing my hair out, I was also pretty overweight and have lost about eighty pounds total since then - which means I am back to normal. That is not arrogance on my part, but is purely something I have noticed.
4. Men also flirt with me much more often. Now, I am not gay, but I will be honest and say that the flirting does not bother me - but I also do not return it. From what I understand, most gay men are well aware if another man is straight or not right off the bat, so I know it's harmless. The last time I experienced this until recently was many years ago when I was a college student, working full-time as a server in a restaurant, and had this look going on:
I mean, come on...Can you blame anyone for wanting to flirt with me back then? Kidding. But I had a plateau of no men flirting with me for a few years after I stopped dressing like a rockstar and was no longer thirty-pounds underweight.
5. Long hair is hot. I mean, really hot. Any woman (or man) who has hair longer than mine has my applause for putting up with such a thing during the summer months, especially in the south. If you do anything sweaty, it just feels gross - unless you put it up. Which brings us to...
6. Ponytails suck. Hard. Really hard. My hair is long enough to be in a pony tail, but there was about a month's time when I was in the weird place of being able to put it into a hair-tie, but anytime I leaned my head forward, half of the hair would pull out of said hair-tie. Since then, I can now pull it back and rock the ponytail, but I will not do it in public, because I look really freaking stupid. Sidenote: I bought hair-ties at the drug store and it felt really weird...
7. You have to be much more particular about the shampoo you use when your hair is long. When your hair is below two inches long, you can wash it with anything that does not do weird things to your scalp and be just fine, but if it is long? No way. I tried baby shampoo last week with the thought it would make my hair soft and fluffy, nope! My hair was the biggest tangled mess you have ever seen and trying to comb it out made me feel as if I was being scalped, which brings us to...
8. Long hair affords you the knowledge of every single time a hair falls out of your head. Why? Because they are freaking long and end up in your mouth, your eyeball, down your collar, in your car, on your pillow, everywhere. You see, when you have short hair, it has a tendency to just blow away or fall into oblivion, but after you clear about five inches of length, every hair that falls out either wants you to swallow it or tries to tie itself around something. (For the record, I also do not have a baldness gene, and my hair does not fall out all that often, but I am aware when it does so now).
9. It picks up smells. Just like clothing, long hair absorbs the surrounding aromas. If someone is smoking next to you, it sticks in your hair. So does campfire smoke, food odors, car exhaust, sawdust, and even pollen residue. I know it is recommended to not wash your hair everyday because of essential, natural oils and such, but there is no way to avoid a cleaning if you are around anything unpleasantly aromatic.
10. Hair takes longer than I imagined to grow to a certain length. As I said before, I am now nearly at the year mark of growing mine out and the longer it gets, the seemingly slower it tends to grow. I am at a little over ten inches now and Locks of Love requires that much length to take as a donation, but I will not walk around bald by choice. I need at least two more inches before donating it, but with each little annoyance, my logic tends to wane a little bit more...
I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe laughed a little.
I need a haircut...
Grace and Peace,
-Drew
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You know... If you get it trimmed it might grow faster. I know that sounds crazy but it actually helps.
ReplyDeleteYou know, as someone who always researches everything in every way possible, this is something I jumped into with no knowledge of and without educating myself about. I guess I just assumed there was not much involved in growing one's hair, but I am learning new things every day. Including your little tip. Haha. Thanks.
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