hair apparent

Most people who know me know about THE HAIR. That is, they know that when I was a teenager I had very, very short hair for a couple of years. We're not talking about a bob, or even a cute pixie...it was basically a crew cut. For those people who didn't know me then, it seems that it's hard for them to imagine...I guess it doesn't fit with their image of me. To be honest, it doesn't really fit with MY image of me now. But I had my reasons at the time...

It was 1987. Annie Lennox had an orange buzz cut, and Sinead O'Connor was bald. I had spent several years trying to fit in with the "big hair" types at my small town high school, with minimal success. I was 16 (going on 25!) and had just discovered the alternative world of 6th Street and the club scene. I remember I carried a picture of "the cut" around with me for quite a while before I finally got up the nerve to do it. No one knew what I was planning except for my best friend Laura, who accompanied me to Visible Changes for the big event. And voila...

I loved it...at least for a while. I loved the neatness of it (can you say OCD?), I loved the way it felt to run my hand over it. I loved that it was different...after all, I had felt different for so long. Maybe it was the first step toward defining myself instead of trying to belong.

Or maybe it was just a really cool haircut. Either way, it was definitely the most daring thing I've ever done with my appearance, and something I'll never regret.