Donating my hair

Today my good friend Cindy and I donated our pony tails for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign. Neither of us have ever done anything which changes our appearance so drastically, but we knew this was for a good cause so we let the scissors snip away at the hair we've been growing for the past couple of years. 

We went to Sachi For Hair in Dianella plaza and we were in such good hands. The hair stylist who cut our hair was Claire, and wow she is a master with the scissors. It was such a strange feeling when all the hair was cut off, but once our hair had been restyled into the bob cut, I kind of forgot why I was so nervous to begin with because rocking shorter hair is pretty cool. Is this how Beyonce felt when she cut her hair?

Both Cindy and I are so happy with our shorter hairdos. To think, we would never have known that we could pull it off if we didn't take the leap and go for it. I've learnt this lesson many times over this year. Sometimes trying something new, scary as it may seem, turns out to be not that scary at all. It's the best feeling when you are glad you pushed past the fear and made the leap. This makes me think of something I once read about "what-ifs" and not knowing. I love this idea that we should take whatever we have right here and now and make a life so great that we are glad our "what-if" never came to be. Sometimes we don't get what we want, but we will always have something good in our lives. It's best to use all these good things and move forward to creating a better future. Even if it's different from the one we planned, doesn't mean it still can't be good. I love this quote from Marc and Angel Hack Life: "To be upset about what you don't have is a waste of what you do have". 

Love this girl so much. A true friend and an amazing human being :) :) :)

Measuring my hair

I'd like to share a rather personal story with you all today. A few years back, my very close family friend (second older sister even) Emily was diagnosed with cancer. My sister and I went to vist Em in hospital as she was undergoing her first rounds of chemotherapy and loosing her hair. I remember so clearly when she said to me, almost jokingly I guess (because she has this amazing sense of humour), that she'd love my hair. It may seem a bit strange, but I felt compelled to actually give Em my hair. I really wanted to. I think it was Em who told me that people can donate their hair to make wigs for women who have lost theirs through cancer treatment. 

The first thing I did that night was go home and Google all the ways in which I could donate my hair for wig making. I came across Pantene Beautiful Lengths, one of the campaigns which runs across Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately as I was reading through the requirements for hair donations they said that they did not accept hair which has been chemically coloured (i.e. dyed). I was so devastated because I had just coloured my hair only a few months before. 

For me there was no question about whether or not I wanted to donate me hair. It was just something I wanted to see through to the end. So I began to grow my hair out. I first had to wait for all the colour to grow out. This took the longest time. I think it was 2 years before it was all out completely. Then it took another year to get my hair to a length that I was satidfied with. During these three years, I made sure I took good care of my hair. I used leave in conditioner, I rarely straightened or curled it and I made sure I went for semi regular trims every few months (even though you're supposed to go every 6-8weeks). 

My good friend Cindy also got involved with me and we finally arranged to get our hair cut for tomorrow. Which leads me to my something new for today. 

Today I measured my hair for the first time ever and to my great surprise, and delight, it measured a total length of 81cm :) Plenty of hair to donate. YAY!