Off With My Head!

Every few years I seem to have some sort of personal epiphany about my appearance...I've been blonde, brunette and brassy, bespectacled, spectacle-less and then bespectacled again, and have since my teen years, had locks of a variety of lengths including a white blonde Annie-Lennox-style crop at the time of my sister's medieval-themed wedding! 

On my last trip to tresses-tamer extraordinaire A, I mentioned I'd been thinking about losing the locks but wasn't quite ready...so we've been anticipating yesterday's appointment with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. 

So why was I so nervous about my decision to go short again?

One of the things about your hairdresser is that if you go every 6-8 weeks like I do (I am a Leo and having fab hair is essential to a worthwhile life - so sue me!), you see them more often than many of your friends.  A has been doing my do now for about two years so we've been 'there' through many ups and downs in our respective lives - she's heard about new job, redundancy, the not quite right transitional job, death of partner's mother, friend's cancer scare, the death of my relationship and subsequent return to singledom, another new job and Christmas holidays in Melbourne - so when she mentioned that perhaps I wasn't ready last time because I was already dealing with too many changes, I thought she probably had a point. 

So I showed my pictures, pressed my sweaty palms together, tried desperately not to notice the great wads of brown (with silver-highlights!) scattered around the chair, on the floor and in my lap and breathed...deeply.

And then it was time to take my courage in my hands, come to the edge ...

Off with my head...of hair!

...and fly.

It feels exhilarating!!

Ol' Four Eyes...

Yes it's true...in the aftermath of my 40th birthday and after 8 years of perfect vision, I bought a pair of glasses today...

I knew when I had laser surgery back in 2001 that I might only get 7-10 years before my eye muscles started to weary with the - ahem - 'natural age-ing process' and my regular eye test back in January this year confirmed that this had indeed begun so I did attend my appointment with the optician on Thursday with a more than sneaking suspicion that a return to glasses would be the outcome.

However, I would like to reassure you that I am not so despondent about this as you might think.  Tired eyes and headaches are certainly no fun and it will be quite useful to glance quickly at the distant train schedule to ensure I do not end up on the wrong tube - I admit that I am currently resorting to asking the waiting passengers on board any platform-ed train 'What line is this?' or 'Where is this one going?' as I come racing down the stairs...instead of dashing along the platform until I am close enough to see whether it was actually the train I should have been on...or not!  If you've been to London, you know how completely shocking it is for people to make eye contact, let alone actually be addressed, during their commute so I feel that as London is my home, this aberrant behaviour of mine must stop.

As J is heartily sick of me squinting/complaining 'I can't read that'/borrowing his glasses, he (and his daughter, the lovely A) came with me to ensure I did not end up looking either nanna-ish or try-hard-trendy and in the end, the choice was pretty easy...and a rather cool pair of specs will be awaiting me in about a week's time.

So peeps, ol' four eyes is back and better than ever!