I’ve said before (not here, but in real life) that I’m glad I’m not a celebrity. This week gave me one more reason why.


Emma Watson adopts a Pixie cut and it makes the entertainment headlines, Twitter rounds, and Facebook commentary. Fandom and Entertainment sites host “Love It or Hate It” polls. Keri Russell went super short years ago when she played Felicity and the backlash was immediate and harsh. Same when Faith Hill adopted a bob.
Y’all, changing our hair color and style is part of the fun of being a girl!  My own hair hasn’t seen its natural color since the 1990’s.  And I’ve changed styles more times than I can count.  I am so grateful that when I change my hair it doesn’t warrant press coverage. I’d never be out of the news.


I started life as a blonde- once I finally had hair.

.

And all through middle school and high school and college, I went long and too short and then the right short for me.  I made mistakes.  Bad ones. You’ll notice there are no pictures of this era posted here.  There’s a reason for that.


In 2005, after years of mostly chin to shoulder length styles in a variety of colors, I decided to grow my hair long.

This was my hair in 2007:

:

I kept it mostly the same length through 2008, but I had a lot of red in the color- not my best look.  That length? Was high maintenance. I have a lot of hair, and it is thick. This is not a complaint but a fact.  That means that it takes ages to get blown dry correctly- more than a half  hour. And then, it must be styled.  So, yeah, it was nice to have it long again, but it was cumbersome.
In 2009, I started going a little shorter, and darker, close to my natural color (I can’t actually remember my natural color. I’d have to go back to some college photos, or maybe high school).



Earlier this year, I went a little shorter still, and the blonde highlights came back in.




But this summer, I went shorter than I have since sometime in the mid-2000’s.  The only thing this photo doesn’t show is the one red streak I had added last time I went to the salon.

This cut?  I’ll use the same description as Emma: Liberating.
I can get ready more quickly. It’s more natural.  It’s cooler. And where I live, that matters in the summer time.  I feel better with it.  
So what’s my point with this rambling? It’s that we’re lucky as girls to be able to change our look so completely, to have fun with our hair, and to experiment with different looks. Believe me, I’ve had some misses that I hope never to repeat.  It shouldn’t be newsworthy when a news anchor or singer or actress changes her hairstyle or color, especially when it implies it is something that requires votes on whether or not we like it. Who cares?  The only exception to this rule? When something like Britney Spears’ shaving her head occurs, because that indicated some deeper issues going on.
So, go Emma, go Keri, go Faith. Go all of us. Experiment. Have fun. Enjoy being a girl and getting to do it! I’m off to paint my nails now.  It’s a night out later, after all.