PSF and Bangs

I have a love/hate relationship with my hair.

I love to hate it.

I have that really annoying hair that isn't straight, but isn't curly either. I was also blessed with this really stubborn cowlick that makes it impossible to part my hair anywhere but exactly one inch to the right (my right) of dead center.

My mother often tells me that the very first thing she noticed about me was my cowlick. And she tried with all her might to subdue it. She subjected my poor baby hair to product and spray right from the start in an effort to make my hair part on the left. She believed (under the influence of my grandmother, I am sure) that hair was supposed to part on the left and it drove her crazy that mine didn't. I have been driving her crazy like that my whole life, but that is a whole other post!

Mom succeeded with the left part for about as long as it took to snap this picture before the cowlick fought back and ultimately won.

Please take a few moments to ooh and aah over my cuteness...I'll wait.

The presence of the cowlick has seriously limited my style options. My hair has pretty much looked the same my entire life. It has varied in length over time and in recent years, varied in color as well. But for the most part it has been the same.

Any serious variation in my standard haircut has usually involved bangs. And has usually been regretted the instant the hair hit the floor.

The issue with bangs goes back to the cowlick and the impossibly stubborn part. I have always wanted thick, chunky bangs that fell straight forward into my eyes...like hers:

Unfortunately, my bangs always part on the right just like the rest of my hair. This has not stopped me from trying though. My childhood is peppered with pictures of my failed bangs attempts. (You can see in this picture that my mom is still trying to make my hair part on the left!)

After about age two, we gave up on bangs for the next decade. And when I look back at pictures of my middle school years, I wish we had just let sleeping cowlicks dogs lie. Because what happened next did nothing to help my awkward years.

I decide that I actually could pull off bangs, if I just quit fighting the cowlick. So I feathered them...

Don't laugh.

Every single one of you has a picture at least this heinous hiding in an album at your mom's house. And it probably involves bad bangs too! *shudder*

After letting those grow out, I swore (or maybe my mom did) that I was never cutting bangs again. And I didn't for about 4 years. Until 10th grade. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't feather them but I did still use a curling iron (and a whole can of AquaNet) in order to make them fall straight across my forehead. The effect never lasted past 10am.

Thankfully, I had school pictures taken during first period that year!
Somewhere shortly after this, due to hormones or whatever, I entered the idiot teenager stage. You know what I am talking about...all teenagers are idiots. Even the goody-two-shoes ones, like me.

There can be no other explanation for what I did next...

I let my bff (who in retrospect, had no skill with a pair of scissors whatsoever) cut my bangs.

About an hour before our dates picked us up for prom.

It was not my best look.

I gave up on bangs (again) after that. And I really thought I had kicked the habit this time.

Until Katie Holmes cut her hair.

Then I just had to jump on the bandwagon.

But for the first time, I found bangs that worked. I really liked my Katie Holmes hair and I kept the style (and color) for over a year.

It's been about a year since I let my bangs grow out and I really had no intention of crossing over to the dark side again this soon.

But then my sister came to visit with her new bangs, looking all cute and sassy like Jennifer Garner...and what can I say?

I caved to peer pressure.

They're ba-ack!

Hosted by Cecily