Before and After

This post is to explain where the girl in my profile picture went:

For three years (2006 - 2009) I've been growing my hair long. The first reason is because I always grow it out while I'm pregnant because I lose so much hair after having a baby and longer hair hides that I've got a receding hairline.

Me in 2007 with Landon and my amazing doc, Dr. Rob Dyar, of No. Cobb Women's Health.
This was already after 9 months of growing it.

The second reason is that this time, since it was already a little longer to start with, I decided I would try to grow it long enough to donate it to Locks of Love or Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program that make wigs for children with Alopecia and women going through chemo. It took me three years to get it long enough to donate! But by then it was in horrible shape. Tons of split ends and very thin. What's very funny to me is that I was getting so many compliments on it even though I thought it looked horrible. But I had gotten so bored with my look (I'm used to doing lots of different styles with it) that I went and got high-lights - Oops! Big No! No! You can't donate high-lighted hair. I just couldn't take it any longer. The sitting on it and getting sticky baby fingers in it and it's about to get hot. This is Atlanta after all! {Have I given enough excuses?} Patience is still one of those fruits of the Spirit that God is growing in me. It may take awhile; I hope I have enough patience to wait for it! ; )

Me before I left to go get it cut. This is the longest it has ever been.

Well, I went last Saturday to the wonderful, talented, pampering Van Michael salon in Buckhead and told them I wanted it short and fun and edgy. Brian got me a gift certificate for Mother's Day because I've been wanting to go there for years; they have an impeccable reputation and it is well-deserved, let me tell you! I took them a picture of what I had in mind and told them to tweak it so that it suited me. I didn't want the color to go this dark (it would have been too harsh on me and awful to grow out) but I did want one section underneath to be a bright color.Juan did my color, Raena is his assistant and DJ (just back from the Miami salon) did my cut. Mwah!!! Big kisses to all of you because I think you did a fabulous job! My only regrets are that it couldn't actually be donated and that I didn't have someone take pictures of the process and the way that DJ had styled it. I was so excited about the way it was turning out that I didn't think to ask someone to do that for me. Oh well. There's always the next time, right? And believe-you-me, there will be a next time!

I didn't realize, until after it was all done, how much I had missed having short hair. This suits my personality so much better!!! I kind of feel now like a little part of me had gotten kind of lost in that long hairstyle (or lack of it). Now, you can "psycho-analyze" me all you want. That I did this just to get attention or something silly like that but, honestly, I feel like I haven't been letting myself have very much fun lately in my life and it was time to "kick things up a notch!" Consider the notch "kicked up!" I love it! Besides, I've been talking about doing something fun with it for about four years now and Andy Andrews puts it brilliantly in his latest book The Noticer:

"Five seagulls are sitting on a dock. One of them decides to fly away.
How many seagulls are left?"
"Well.... four."
"No," Jones responded. "There are still five. Deciding to fly away
and actually flying away are two very different things.
"Listen carefully to me. Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is
absolutely no power in intention. ... "

Of course, I realize cutting my hair is a very small decision in the grand scheme of things but it does reflect how I want to approach my life. I want to stop talking about doing things and start actually doing them! What have you been talking about doing? Isn't it time to actually do it?!