I cut my hair off.
Like, really cut it off.
And you know what? I kind of love it.
This has been coming for a while. I’ve already written about letting my hair go gray, which was its own little journey of deciding that maybe I didn’t need to keep covering up something that was naturally happening anyway.
Now apparently I’ve moved on to phase two: short gray hair.
Maybe this is my midlife crisis?
If so, I’ll take it.
Why I Cut My Hair Short
For years, longer hair meant I spent most of my time putting it up.
A bun. A ponytail. A clip. A hair tie. Whatever would get it up and, most importantly, off my neck.
And eventually I started wondering why I was keeping my hair long when I almost never actually wore it down.
So I cut it.
And there is something ridiculously nice about having it off my neck without having to do anything.
No bun required. No clip digging into the back of my head when I lean against something. No hair tie permanently living on my wrist.
It’s just… short.
And easy.
And Then There’s the Gray
The gray is part of this too.
For a long time, gray hair felt like something I was supposed to cover. Like it was a problem that needed fixing every few weeks.
But I don’t really feel that way anymore.
I’m curious about what my natural hair actually looks like now.
There are lighter pieces. Darker pieces. Gray pieces. And all of it mixed together actually gives short hair a lot of dimension.
I spent years coloring it, so letting it go gray feels a little strange. But it also feels really freeing.
This is what my hair is doing now.
Okay.
Let’s see what happens.
Short Hair Is Actually Fun
This is probably the part I didn’t expect.
I can play with it!
I can part it on one side one day and switch it to the other side the next.
I can make it fluffy.
I can smooth it down.
I can tuck it behind my ears.
I can put a little clip in the center, and somehow it looks completely different.
It’s cute like that.
And because there’s so much less hair, doing something different with it doesn’t turn into a whole production.
That’s a pretty big selling point for me.
I Might Never Grow It Long Again
I know. Never say never.
There may come a day when I suddenly decide I desperately need long hair again.
But right now?
I honestly can’t imagine it.
I like how this feels. I like how easy it is. I like not having hair on my neck. I like not automatically reaching for a hair tie every morning.
And I’m starting to really like the gray too.
Maybe there is something about getting older that makes you a little more willing to stop doing things simply because you’ve always done them.
Maybe I’m just entering my short-haired, gray-haired era.
Or maybe this really is my midlife crisis.
Either way, it’s not horrible.
I’ll take it.