Wedding Hair

Wedding Hair.  This seems like a very common dilemma - to grow it out or not.  I initially decided to grow my hair out knowing that doing so would give me the most options come wedding day.  What I forgot, though, was how much of a pain long hair was and why I enjoyed chopping it so much.  Right now it's not too much of a pain because it's hot out.  That means that I would probably be wearing my hair up anyway and I can let it dry naturally without freezing my butt off.  Come winter, I'll probably be happy to have the long hair to cover my neck and keep me warm.  Most of the time, though, I'm more than willing to chop it. 

How do I create a compromise for myself?  I'm growing my hair out long enough to make another donation to Locks of Love plus a little extra.  This way, the chop will feel very satisfying and I will still have medium length hair to either keep growing out or go shorter with, depending on how I feel as we get closer.

How far am I from a donation like that?  Probably just a few inches!

Here's where my hair was last July, only a few months after a cut.

Here's where my hair was last September when we first moved back down to NC. Everyone wave HI to Vanessa!  Vanessa is getting married this October and her hair is much longer now as she has also grown out her wedding hair.  (A few more weeks and you can get your Post-Wedding Chop!)

Jump ahead a year later, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here's my hair now.  Ooo la la.  Pay attention to the hair trying to hid its true length by curling up.  Luckily one strand decided to be part of the minority (I see you, strand!)

Since measuring with a ruler is boring, I decided to measure by DVDs.

Whoa that's a lot of hair!  That's almost two shelves' worth!

Do I think I'll keep my hair long for the wedding?  Probably not.  Why not, there are so many great up-dos you can do with long hair?  Yes, and they'd look great, except Vanessa (waving hi, again), brought up a great point that I didn't even think about!  The more complex the style, the more hairspray and bobby pins you have to deal with on your wedding night.  This revelation brought back memories of dealing with post-prom hair.  I still have boxes of bobby pins that I saved.  One box per hair style.  Holy crap are there a lot of bobby pins in those boxes!!  And I never ended up re-using the pins, which was the intent in saving them.  The last thing I'm going to want to do on my wedding night is dealing with my hair or choosing to sleep on bobby pins *ouch*!  So Vanessa has me seriously considering more natural styles, which is more me anyway.  I was already leaning towards a fun style with the hair being any length between my chin and shoulders.  Until the next chop, however, the hair is long. 

To end this post, I feel I must share my life saver for dealing with this long hair.  My hair loves to get knotty, not matter what length it's at.  So I've tried lots of different shampoo/conditioner combos to make my hair easy to manage.  I have fallen in love with the miracle known as Hello Hydration from Herbal Essences.

Herbal Essences

I love this stuff so much that I even have a travel size to use whenever I'm not home.  It does wonders after you've used a hotel shampoo that dries the crap out of your hair.  Whether you're growing your hair out for a wedding, enjoy it long, or even simply have dry hair, this purchase is worth it.