Bangs

Yes, I am obsessed with the child in this photo. I love her short bangs with her long hair. I've always wanted really awesome straight hair like this so I could wear short bangs. I cut mine short a few times in LA and oh boy was that a really big mistake. My round face does not hold the short bang well.

My hair was technically straight as a child. I rocked a bowl until I was in 3rd grade when I decided to grow it out. I don't know what happened because in my pre-grade school years my hair was red, and perfectly sat around my face like a monk. It was classic. I went to the salan and said, "Give me the Dorothy Hamill." Then, my school pictures from 3rd grade through 9th grade are all of a disheveled, unkempt 'do.

My hair is still not smooth. If I let it air dry it looks absolutely horrible. Some of you may remember this from my Dominican Republic haircut fiasco from December. My hair requires very little shampoo or it builds up and doesn't wash out. The result is what appears to be a greasy, waxy look and texture. It never ever looks like short bangs over here's hair. Because we have a low flow shower head (in my opinion the culprit behind many a bad hair days in my house), it never washes the shampoo out all the way. After the shower, I have to let it dry out a bit before drying it or it will take forever to style. It stays very, very wet.

I have fine not thin hair. Many a stylists have said I have a lot of fine hair--which translates to it taking forever to blow dry. I have to clip it all up in multiple sections, brushing it all the while. If I care, this takes about 20-25 minutes. It is smoother and less flippy by doing this extensive procedure, but big on the sides, with poufy bangs. I then have to repeat the whole clipping routine to hot iron straighten it. This helps smooth it all out, and keep it straight all day. However, if I wear a hat, pull it back, go outside in the wind/snow/rain/eat something bad it all goes back to crap. The other day at the gym my iron didn't turn on, and I thought it went cap put. I had to go out with my hair unironed. I pulled it back in a ponytail because it was all Hillary Clinton-esque prior to the ponytail. The bangs were really big, and it looked pretty bad. I ordered the iron from my salon, so replacing it quickly would have caused much nervousness on my part. I have Ali's (sister-in-law) engagement party this weekend and no one there knows my hair woes, so I don't want to roll in stylin' a Mom bob, and the guests think I intended it to be that way. Ali has some well-groomed friends, and it's a risk I'm not willing to take. Luckily, the iron fired back up at home, so I'm in the clear for now.

This is the hair I wish I had.

How did this kid grow her hair so long anyway? I don't think a lifetime of growing would get my hair to this length. Lyla's hair hasn't even started growing on the sides, and she's two and a half. She has my hair. Weird growth, brown, fine, no style. The girls (and the boys for that matter) in her class have Rapunzel-length hair with bows and headbands all over the place. Lyla barely has any hair, has no definitive part, and is bald on the sides the poor thing.

I asked the hair stylist to cut bangs and a short blunt to-the-ear cut the first time we went, and the girl told me to work with what we had, and that the hairdo I clipped from the trendy and unfortunately out of print magazine Cookie was a pipe dream. It's just a shame...Lyla is always so stylin, it would be cool for her to rock a bob like this little kid.

We're about ten years away.