Going From Long Curly Hair to Short Curly Hair: A Rewarding Experience With Zero Regrets

Only curly haired people know how much upkeep is required to maintain their long luscious hair.  It involves a whole lot of processes that include numerous hair care products:

Oil, Shampoo, condition, live in, hair cream, hair gel, hair mousse, and the list continues. 

It takes a lot of out of the person, especially if you are someone who has a lot of other things to do and have barely any time to take care of your hair. The long hair I had used to be mostly in bun or braids, these are the two quickest and easiest ways to take care of frizzy curls. 

I had so many reasons to chop it off and so few to keep the long hair. The desire to get an haircut was strong but it battled with a lot of other factors.

Time and energy required to maintain long curly hair:

These processes take time and energy, that sadly is wasted on hair unless you are Instagram influencer who earns big bucks by running a channel on curly hair. It's not getting you anything in return, albeit a few complements. 

Would short hair suit me? What would people think about me?

I was one of those people who worried about what I would look like if I cut my hair short. And the initial days after i got a haircut were especially harder because people closest to me insisted that long hair looked good on me and I shouldn't cut it off at any cost. This included family and friends, some even reacted badly when i got the haircut but that's another story. 

Analyzing my own need for short haircut:

Headaches:

The point is they didn't really care how much of burden it had become for me. If you are someone like me who has a tender head, it can also cause headaches.

And anytime i tried a new hairstyle. Just putting it in two braids instead of one would give me a headache that wouldn't go away until i unraveled my hair from those braids. 

Summer Heat:

And lets talk about the hot summer season. Its very hot in mumbai, the summers get so hot an sweaty many times i would get the desire to go completely bald. No matter how many times I washed my hair, it would get sweaty in a minute and I felt like i would go crazy with the heat. 

Still even in the midst of the heat waves, I couldn't gather the courage required to cut it off, to  face people once I cut it off. Because people can be horrible, especially people who don't give a shit about you and only care about appearances. 

Pros and Cons List:

Keeping all these things in mind, I sat down and created a list of pros and cons. I'm attaching a picture of the pros and cons. ignore the spelling mistakes and crappy handwriting but you'll get the gist of it. 

This list helped me sort out the chaos and helped me reach a decision. I needed this haircut. I made an appointment with a curly hair specialist and then the next Sunday, I went and got the haircut, I got a angular bob cut, the hairstylist added some some choppy layers to cut and I loved it.

Post that,  I donated my hair, and boy was I glad. Not only did I manage to get a heavy weight lifted off my shoulder, I also helped someone. 

Before chopping it off, I had waist length hair, and right now, my curly bob just reaches about my shoulder and it makes me so damn happy. I have low-maintenance hair now, I mean as low-maintenance a curly hair can get. 

After Haircut:

So, did all the things I dreaded about getting an haircut happen? And what about people's reaction?

People's Reactions:

Lets talk about people's reaction first, there's good and bad.

Few people reacted as expected, 

Oh no, why did you cut off your long hair? It was so nice. 

You grew it out for so many years, and just cut if off like that?

You looked better with the long hair. 

Some just looked at me as if i had disappointed them by getting a haircut. Then I had to tell myself and them that I looked just as great with the short hair. 

Then there were those who loved it:

You look like a doll is the one I'm going to cherish. As someone who has been on receiving end of only rare compliments this one really made my day and entire month. 

Then one person who I met after I got the haircut out of the blue complimented me, "Your hair looks so great, it suits you."

Time and energy 

Oh its so much easier to take care of  short curly hair. I can get out of the shower a lot sooner and I also require less product. So, it saves a lot of money on the hair products because curly products are expensive!

Headaches:

No more headaches. It was such a relief to not get constant headaches. 

Summer Heat:

When I first went from long hair to short curly bob, I picked a salon because I knew I would bungle it on my own. It has been 7 months since then, my hairs grown so much. And its summer now, and my hair has grown so much and I am in dire need of an haircut. I'm gonna try cutting a short curly bob at home by following a tutorial by the youtuber and curly hair specialist Manes by mell. And if I mess up too bad, there's always the salon. But at least, the summer heat won't bother me that much. And the temperatures are only gonna go up.

When do you think would be a right time to cut your hair?

Whenever you want to! 

Especially if you start thinking that your hair is the only thing that sets you apart from the everyone else. That's the only part of your body that makes you beautiful. That people will stop complementing you once you get a haircut. 

Saying that you shouldn't care about what people think about your hair cut would be hypocritical, I felt bad when people said that they thought long hair looked better on me but the joy that my short hair has offered me is much bigger. I realized why short hair is often associated with freedom. 

All I know is that I'm never growing out my hair again, at least not anytime soon. I adore short curly bob cut I had, and hopefully I'll be able to replicate it at home!