Hair today, gone tomorrow. So I finally did it: I chopped it all off! It, of course, being my hair; and it was 32 months in the making. Yes, I have not cut my hair in well over 2 years and it was getting, naturally, rather difficult to manage. But I powered through to grow my hair as long as I could manage because I really wanted to donate it this time round.

Here I am all plaited and ready on my way to the hairdresser for the chopping:

And here I am after the event:

I can’t believe how light it feels! I was told by a friend who had donated hair previously that it would be easier to send plaited hair, so I listened, and it was indeed easier to get inside an envelope. Though I had to use a much bigger envelope than planned as I wasn’t anticipating my cut hair to be so much. Here is what I’m donating: just over 30 cm I believe as it is longer unplaited.

I had been thinking about donating my hair for a while and wanted to grow it as long as I could and also wanted to make it as healthy as possible. My hair usually gets damaged by the sun, and many people have told me they thought I dyed my hair, but it is just the sun’s rays that turn it coppery. I tried to capture the difference in colour with the picture below: essentially as my hair grows and is exposed to the sun more it gets lighter and more coppery.

So recently I have started to use Kalahari melon seed oil, gifted by a friend on my last birthday, and I think it has put some moisture and healthiness back into my hair – not the colour though. I would highly recommend this oil to anyone, like me, who is too lazy to actually condition their hair.

As I’ve been pondering this cut, it made me think how much hair is used as a form of identity. For instance, stereotypically women cut their hair after a break up or dye their hair before going on the run (usually in films). It reminded me of watching Chinese dramas set centuries ago where girls would braid their hair in pigtails to symbolise they were unmarried, once married they would tie their hair up, and if no longer married or betrothed then a single plait would be worn.

It then made me think more recently of Jodie Whittaker’s character in Adult Life Skills (a brilliant film), where she cuts a strand of her hair after her twin brother dies because cells in the body change every 7 years, and so with that strand of hair she has a piece of herself of when her twin brother was still alive. I suppose subconsciously this was another reason for donating my hair: I wanted it kept and made into something for someone, a piece of myself of when my dog was still alive.

I remember I would find Merlin just lying around with a strand of my hair in his mouth, I imagine just from licking the carpet or something, and I would have to pull it out so he wouldn’t eat it. I also remember pulling a strand of my hair from Merlin from the other end of him if he managed to eat my hair somehow without me realising. I do not know really why or how he managed to eat my hair! But yes, I will be posting my hair tomorrow to The Little Princess Trust, and I hope soon that someone will be using it properly.