I’ve been growing my hair out for around two years now. My hair grows kind of slow, I guess, but I was starting with about a finger’s width of hair. While I’ve been really excited to see my hair actually getting longer and pass my shoulders, it finally reached a point where it needed its first real cut. Because my hair is super curly and frizzy and an all-around mess, I also had been meaning to get a keratin treatment as well. I flat iron it every day and that’s definitely taken it’s toll on my hair. It feels dry and it breaks a lot. It also doesn’t help that my hair is two different lengths; the top is shorter than the bottom. Mostly, I just wear it in a ponytail with some long bangs that sweep partially across my forehead.
It was time to do something about this so when I saw a Living Social deal for keratin at a place reasonably close, I snatched it up (not that these don’t pop up all the time). With my new job starting on Tuesday and being off this week, I was hopeful I could get an appointment right away and was lucky enough to get one for today (I called Tuesday).
I walked in without much of an idea of what the treatment was like or how I wanted my hair cut. I knew I wanted at least a couple inches off, but I still need it long enough to put in a ponytail.
Since I haven’t been to this salon before and didn’t have a recommendation, I didn’t know who to ask for so I just made the appointment with whoever was available. I was surprised when it turned out that my appointment was with a man. I wasn’t really sure if I was comfortable with having a man doing my hair, but I didn’t seem to have much of a choice if I wasn’t prepared to just walk out, never to return again.
When I told him what I was thinking about how I wanted my hair cut, he kept pointing his finger to a shorter length than I was trying to show him. I got a little worried, I really didn’t want too much taken off. When he started cutting, I sort of immediately freaked out in my head, “OMG! HE’S CUTTING ALL MY HAIR OFF!!!!!!!” But as he made his way around more and I could see more of it, I started to like it. He didn’t cut it all right away, instead, he said he was going to leave the top until after everything else was done and my hair was dry. When we walked over to the area where the keratin dryer was, I was able to get a good look at the length and kind of fell in love with it.
After everything was done and he finished up drying and cutting my hair, I put my glasses back on and spent a minute checking it out in the mirror. Definitely loving it!
I don’t know how easily it’ll all go up into a ponytail, I may need to go back to using six or seven bobby pins to get it all to stay, but I can deal with that. Because of the keratin, I won’t be able to wash it, get it wet, use any product, put it in a ponytail, or use any hair ties or hair clips for three days. So I won’t get to really find out until Sunday. And, unfortunately, I won’t be able to run until then which really sucks for my mileage this week. Like, really sucks, since I’ve only run six miles so far.
I also had to cancel my plans to go river tubing with some friends on Saturday as well. I had to send an email with one of the most stereotypically girly excuses ever. “I’m sorry, I can’t get my hair wet. I have to bail.” As I was typing it, I was just thinking to myself “I can’t believe I’m actually typing this, there’s no way I’m getting away with this!” And I didn’t. I totally got called out for it!
Anyway, this was my first real doing anything with my hair as a woman experience and I’m excited that it wasn’t a complete disaster! And, as far as I could tell, the stylist didn’t seem to pick up on me being trans at all. I mean, he might have, but he didn’t say anything to lead me to believe he did.
