An Unwanted Post Wedding Chop

Guys, I was butchered.

I ranted about this several times last week on my post-wedding blog, but now that it’s officially a PWC, I thought I’d share with the hive. Brides, don’t try anything new with your hair before your wedding. Thank god I waited until after our wedding, even though I was itching to do something before. After the hair drama of last week, my stylist even said “Isn’t it a good thing this didn’t happen before your wedding?” Um, yeah.

But let me start at the beginning.

Last Saturday I went in for a cut and a color with my stylist of over 6 years. All I wanted was for my long layers to be cut up higher. You all have seen my curled wedding hairstyle, but this is what it looks like when it’s not all curled the other half of the time, with just the bottom of the layers curled under.

(pre-butchering hair style)

I told my stylist that I wanted chunky layers cascading down my back. I also specifically said to her that by now, after the wedding, I thought I would be ready to go shorter, but I wasn’t. I told her that if I did go shorter now I knew I would be unhappy and regret it, so I just wanted to keep my length, but add more layering. Perhaps part of the blame should land on me because I didn’t bring a picture with me, but I didn’t think it was necessary when my stylist has been working with my hair for over half a decade, and I wasn't asking for a big change.

And this is somehow what I ended up with. This is my freakin’ mangled post-cut hair, freshly washed and dried, but not curled (I have to curl my hair at least a little everyday because of the really coarse texture.)

Wait, are you having difficulty seeing why I was pissed? Here, let me clarify:

There was no way in hell I could wear my hair like in the first picture in this post, with just the ends curled under. I looked like an idiot! I was so unhappy and just got angry every time I looked in the mirror. My hair has always been my favorite feature, so this was a low blow. I totally get why the girls on America’s Next Top Model cry when they get their hair chopped off!

And so I tried spending 45 minutes spiral curling my hair for a couple of days to hide the bad cut, but I just couldn’t live with it like this. My bottom layer that was now exposed just doesn’t hold curl as well, as you can see in this picture I took at the end of the day. And this was after being terrified all day to lean back or bump my hair, and make the curls fall out!

Plus the fact that the top layer was way too thick made it stick out way too much from the side view. My hair is just too thick to be reduced to two layers!

So after a really depressing few days, I called my stylist and told her that I just couldn’t live like this. She offered to have me come in and try to fix it for free. But as I suspected, there was no salvaging my long hair that I’d worked so hard on growing for years. The only solution was to cut it, so there wasn’t such a gap between the top layer and bottom layer.

So this is my unwanted and unintended post wedding chop, about 6 inches shorter than it was before. It’s just ok. At least I don’t feel depressed and upset when I look in the mirror, but I’m only just “alright” with my hair for now. It’s just hard when my hair is (was?) my favorite feature, and so much of my identity and look is tied to it. Maybe in 8 to 10 months when it grows out I’ll be happy again. But for now, this is as good as it is going to get.

With only the ends curled under, which is how I’ll wear it about half the time:

And with it more curled, how I’ll wear it the other half of the time:

Did anyone else get a post wedding chop that they weren’t happy with?

(All photos in this post were obviously taken by me. And sorry about my messy bathroom, I don't have to share it with anyone so I don't clean it as often as I should!)