Long Hair

I have what most people would call 'really long' hair. I would consider it medium length - it reaches a little past my hips. People always ask me how long it has taken to grow it - the answer is about 8-9 years. Much to my dismay my hair grows very slowly. It does grow a lot faster than I thought it did as a child, however. Now, in general I would consider myself to have been a pretty bright kid, I usually got straight A's throughout school. But strangely enough I never connected the fact that my hair didn't grow with the fact that my mother was always having it cut. I only realised this in the last year or two. You see, my mother hates hair, says she wishes everyone was bald, and never wanted to mess with taking care of my hair when I was little, so she kept it at a sort of 'page-boy' style. Finally when I was old enough to take care of my hair myself - meaning she didn't have to sit and comb it out while I screamed or fumble with briads that didn't want to stay tight - she let me grow it out. By eighth grade it was about waist length and then tragedy struck. I went to get a trim, you know get rid of some split ends and even it out a bit, and the lady when scissor happy. She chopped it off to shoulder length once again. My mother said she had never witnessed anyone as angry as I was, said she'd never seen what a real rage looked like. For some reason my long hair is a very inegral part of my being, cut it off and you've just amputated half my soul - it seems. I don't feel like myself with short hair! It goes against all my principles! Can you immagine being made to be what you are not. It is utterly contrary to me to have short hair. I was horrified, angry beyond expression, and extreemly depressed. Needless-to-say since that horrible day I have seen to it that my hair has not met with any more voracious scissors. I have hopes that it will someday be past my knees, though it doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get there. I have given up on the rapunzel thing, and perhaps not even on the floor length. If it actually did grow to the floor I might keep it that way, but I don't think I'd really like it to get dirty like that all the time, and I'd really rather not have to pick old gum and bits of lint or trash out of the ends of it at the end of the day. I can't immagine it would stay very healthy.
I am very protective of my hair. You do not even want to joke about cutting it. Holding scissors while standing behind me puts me on edge. I am really a nice person, good, lawabiding and all that, (the only thing I take joy in harming is bugs in my house, outside I protect them) but I really don't know what I'd do if I caught someone cutting off my hair. I might just murder them. I'd probably go mad on any account. I had a nightmare once that someone was cutting my hair while I was asleep and I had violent urges to thrash whoever it was with a knife, I woke up trembling and layed there grasping my hair and feeling up and down it's length to reassure myself that it was still there. I really can't explain why my hair is so important to me, it doesn't make really sense, but it's very true none-the-less. So there you have the warning - don't joke about cutting my hair - Seriously.
I honnestly think that almost everyone should have long hair. I am, however, also a fairly open-minded and reasonable person. I know that a great many people will never agree with me on this account, and there's really nothing to be done about it. Everyone's hair is really their own business, but if you ever ask me if you should get your hair cut you know my answer. I will admit that a few people do in fact look better with short hair, but I think many more would look good with long hair than think they would. It always makes me happy to see people with hair longer than shoulder length - well at least when they keep it nice. When it is all straggly on the ends or when it is so thin it looks like a rat's-tail when braided then I'm not so fond of it. Even people with grey hair, I think, should have long hair. I think long silvery hair is very pretty. It's a shame almost all older women cut their hair short. I do generally like men to have long hair as well, though perhaps not as long as women. -that is rahter an interesting trend, dont' you think, that in generall all over the world men tend to have shorter hair than women.
Many people seem to think than having 'long' hair is 'more work' than short hair. I would definately disagree. I spend much less time on my hair every day than my mother does. I can very easily braid it, or 'throw' it up into a pony tail or bun in less than 2 minutes, whereas she spends considerably more time (I haven't timed it) curling and styling and ratting and spraying it. If she just leaves her short hair how it is when she gets up it looks pretty funny, but just a quick brush over the top to flatten some of the whispys that have gotten out during the night (I sleep with it in a braid to keep it from tangling) and my hair is at least passable. Now some people with short hair can just get up and do nothing with it, but most women with short hair, it seems, do spend a great deal of trouble styling it.