New Look

So, I did it.  I got my hair cut!

Last summer when I wanted to cut my hair I just went to a little, local place.  Now, I don't really care too much what happens with my hair—it always grows back, you know?  I mean, I do want it to look good, but I've had it shoulder-blade long, missionary short, and several in-betweens; I've had it all red, or dark brown, or I've had blond highlights, and I've always liked it.  So I go to this place and say I want my hair shorter and ask for suggestions. The girl looks at my hair, says it's great, and I have great curls, and has no suggestions to offer.  "What do you want?" she asks. 
>sigh< 
Not that I didn't expect this, but it's not like I'm asking her to go wild with the scissors without my approval either.  I just wanted some ideas, and she wasn't going to offer anything.  After a long and fruitless parley, I just told her to cut it shorter—like an A-line—and stack the back, and she practically dropped her scissors on the floor.  That kind of a hairstyle just wouldn't work with curly hair!!  (Um, yeah—it does.  I've done it before.)  Finally I just had her cut some long layers, paid my $15, and felt crabby about the whole experience.  I mean, you almost couldn't tell she'd done anything!

I griped about this experience on facebook and my cousin Wendy—who used to do my hair, and pretty much did anything she pleased (within my very, very basic guidelines, of course)—gave me the name of her hair guy, James.  She said he's not afraid to say what looks good and then do it.  Awesome! 
I finally called him last Monday, and made an appointment for Thursday (the 22nd), and waited in happy anticipation. 

That afternoon, when I sat in his chair, I told him that Wendy said he wasn't afraid to make suggestions, say what would look good, and go for it.  And you know what he said?  He said I have beautiful hair, and great curls, and why would I want to cut it off, and he didn't think I should cut it off, and why did I want to cut it when I could do up-dos and pretty much anything I wanted with long hair?  I said that I like my curls too, but my hair had been the same for about five years and I was just ready for a change. And he was cool with that. Here's what he suggested:  "How about an A-line so the front will still be pretty long, and then we'll stack the back so those curls will just pop out?"  HA!  So that's what we did.

And here's what it looks like:

And I like it! :-)