chase to the cut

Q: what do you do to mark a new start?

A: get a haircut

In one of my many talks with my favorite stylist (M salon in Cambridge, MA), he told me that women often cut their hair after a break-up or at the start of a new job or after graduating from college - as a sort of symbolic "starting anew" and shedding of the past.

since I'm headed to FLORRRRRIDA this weekend (eek!) I decided to shed my winter hair along with all boards stress and get a suuuper short haircut -- as the locks fell onto the ground I actually felt like the stress was leaving me too. It also may have had something to do with the awesome head massage the stylist gave me when I told her I had just finished a huge test in medical school.

stylist: so what was your test on?
me: ohhhh just all of the first two years of medical school.
(massage, massage, massage) yessss...

check out my cut:

because I think this is the shortest my hair has ever been since birth and I'm soon to be wearing a bikini, I'm stealing parts of a quotation from my rockstar friend Anna's blog by Joan Juliet Buck, former editor of french vogue:

Hair is time.
Women with short hair always look as if they have somewhere else to go. Women with long hair tend to look as if they belong where they are, especially in California. Short hair takes a short time. Long hair takes a long time. Long hair moves faster than short hair. Long hair tells men that you are all woman, or a real woman, or at the very least a girl. Short hair always makes them wonder. When you cut your hair you lose a nose and gain a neck. A neck is generally better than a nose. It does not need to be powdered, except on extreme occasions. It does, however, need to be washed more often.

With short hair you suddenly dislike the month of March, when the wind blows down the back of your neck. With short hair you begin to crave pearl necklaces, long earrings, and a variety of sunglasses. Short hair removes obvious femininity and replaces it with style. Short hair makes you aware of subtraction as style. What else can you take away? You can't hide behind short hair. Your nape is exposed. Men put their hands around your neck instead of stroking your long locks. You can only pray they have friendly intentions. The backs of your ears show, your jaw line is clear to anyone watching, and you realize --perhaps for the first time-- how wide the expanse of skin is between cheekbone and ear.

You may look a little androgynous, a little unfinished, a little bare. You will look elegant, as short hair requires you to keep your weight slightly below acceptable levels. However, the first time you wear a bathing suit with short hair, you will feel exceptionally naked. People who used to look straight at you will love you in profile. Short hair makes others think you have good bones, determination, and an agenda. The shape of your skull is commented on, so are its contents. They can pick you out in a crowd, and you can be recognized from behind, which can be good or bad. But your face is no longer a flat screen surrounded by a curtain: the world sees you in three dimensions.

Chase to the cut.