Hairy Tales – Memories re-lived

My Hairy Tales –

For the first 27 years of my life, I had really long hair. My hair was thick and would fall well below my knees at its longest. My long hair was envied in school and much adored by my mother. She worked hard to nurture my hair and get it that long. I broke her heart when I cut my hair in 1997, since I always wanted short hair. Still, I first cut my hair till my waist, then till my shoulder and then finally went all short with a boy cut ! For the past few years I have been maintaining a bob with layers.

Initially my mother-in-law was also a little upset with me for having cut my hair, but she grew to like it. Krishnan loved my long hair and he also loves my short hair. I guess with him, he loves me and that’s that, hairy tales don’t bother him. His first question to me when we met was whether my long hair was real :). I had to let my hair loose for him to pull at it and confirm that it was all real.

The last haircut I got was in Aug 2019 just before our September trip. For some reason, I was lazy and didn’t get a haircut after that and in March the Chinese virus ensured that I go a whole year without a haircut :). Now that Amma stays with us, she has been pestering me to grow my hair the minute it reaches my shoulder. I have somehow successfully defended my short hair. For the past couple of days though she has been wanting to braid my hair into two plaits. I gave in yesterday.

I may just end up letting my hair get longer, because I am curious to see how long it does grow. This should be a fun project. Amma braiding my hair yesterday brought back memories of my school days. I shared this video and the pics in my school whatsapp groups. Invariably all of them remembered my long hair folded four times over and tied neatly with a red ribbon or white ribbon depending on the day of the week. It brought back some interesting memories for Adeeti as her mother would make her drink and eat all sorts of things to get her hair growing. Aunty loved my long hair :):). Am sure I will hear some feedback from Adeeti’s mom if I show her my short hair!

For context on how my hair has evolved over the years, here’s a collage –

Lovely memories and even more fun with the braiding. I removed it in an hour because with the humidity in Delhi NCR, its difficult for me to even use a hairband.

Comments are welcome :):).