Long time Coming

Last summer I decided to grow my hair out for Locks of Love - yes, over a year ago. The stipulation (among a few others) is that the length of donated hair needs to be 10 inches at least. That really didn't seem like much since my hair was almost shoulder length. My sister did this a couple years back, and recently my friend, Jonda, donated. By the time their hair was long enough, both girls were MORE than ready to get it chopped off. So, I wasn't expecting to love the process near the end, but thought it would be worthwhile.

And they weren't kidding - 10 inches is a lot of hair to deal with. And in the last month especially it's been driving me nuts. This week was the limit. I really really was hoping I'd have at least 10 inches because I wasn't sure how much longer I could/wanted to deal with this much hair. Especially my flat, lifeless, accept-no-curl, hair.

So, before I left for the hairdresser, I asked Mike to take some before shots. He asked me if I was sure I wanted to cut all that hair off. I replied with an enthusiastic YES! Then he offered to cut it for free for me. Sweet offer, but I politely declined.

So, here's the before:

I arrived at the salon and one of the stylists came out with her ruler and said as long as I was willing to cut the hair to the base of my neck, I had 10 inches. So, I told her that was great and grabbed my purse to follow her. I think I shocked her with my enthusiasm and she informed me she already had a booked day. I was not to be deterred though and figured SOMEONE was in this place that didn't have an appointment and sure enough they found a stylist.

So...here's the new me:

And all I can say is, "aaaahhhhhh". It feels awesome which is exactly what Tracy told me I would feel.