The Ugly Haircut of the Little Girl

Illustration by cheerfulnuts

As a child, I had always worn my hair short. My parents believed that short hair is cuter and easier to maintain. As girls, my sister and I would spend quite some time in front of the mirror. We wanted to look as pretty as possible. Every morning, my parents would impatiently tell us to hurry. They are the most punctual people on earth, and running late to school was the last thing they’d want to happen. As months passed, it took us longer to fix our hair. Then, the dreaded words would come out from my dad’s mouth,

“You have to have your hair cut.” My mom would join in and complain about our “messy” hair. Then, mom would bring us to the nearest salon one weekend. She would ask the hairstylist to cut our hair super short. She thought it was the best way to spend the money. Having your hair cut, no matter how much had been cut, cost just the same. So in my mom’s opinion, a money spent to cut more amount of hair is a money spent wisely. In my entire childhood, all my visits to salon were disastrous. I would always end up crying when I got home. My parents would comfort me saying I looked cuter with my new hair. I didn’t believe them though. To me, I looked like a bunot (Filipino word for coir). I envied my pretty classmates who had long shiny hair.

Now that I’ve grown up, I’ve rarely visited the salons. I’ve grown my hair long, and to me, I look better and more feminine this way. They say long hair is sexier, and I believe it. I would occasionally ask my sister to trim my hair. She’d watched some tutorials on youtube teaching people how to cut someone’s hair. It turned out terrible, but at least my hair is still long. I have saved some money, and some tears, too.=P