Growing out Pixie Cut: A Horror Story

The moment you decide to get a pixie cut is liberating, as if exposing the nape of your neck suddenly transformed you into a high fashion super model. Your excitement grows the closer you get to Halloween—should I be Twiggy? A frat boy? ~there’s endless possibilities~  You feel great! 

      *Accurate representation

Then, on one fateful day, you will decide you want your long locks back. Call up a priest and grab the holy water, because you, my friend, have just entered hell! The process of growing out a pixie cut requires both patience and time (it can take up to 6 months to get back to the bob stage, depending on how short your pixie cut is initially). During the grow-out process, you’ll endure a bad hair day that lasts for months straight. Your mullet-esk duo will have you ripping bobby pins and bows out of your head as you muse over what an astronomically bad decision you made when you brought in that picture of Emma Watson or Rihanna months back. You will literally have DREAMS where you have long, flowing hair that you can curl and straighten and twist into any style you want—only to wake up and feel like this: 

Combat the hair-grow-woes with this guide to seizing back your wild mane!

1) Take it with grace

Confidence is key. There will be days that you feel like a boy. There will be days that you will look at girls with long hair and envy them till’ you’re green (almost). There will be days that your friends want to go out, and you feel like staying home because your hair looks bad with everything you try on. Remind yourself that it won’t happen overnight. It’ll feel like your hair hasn’t grown an inch in months, then suddenly you’ll have too much of it to handle! Take it a day at a time. Reiterate to yourself that you’re more than the hair on your head, put on a smile, and carpe diem! 

2) Grow, baby, grow!

Your shampoo and conditioner can affect your hair more than you might think—as many brands contain Sulfate, a chemical that strips away your scalp’s natural oils and leaves your hair dry and frizzy. A tell tale sign of sulfate use in your shampoo is the amount of suds it produces when you’re showering. While these suds make shampoo easy to distribute through hair and even gives costumers confidence that the product is working, they don’t leave your hair healthy and ready for growth. We would suggest Not Your Mother’s Way to Grow shampoo and conditioner! 

Lastly, it’s critical to regularly trim the hair at the nape of your neck. Let the front layers grow freely (with trims every once in awhile), but you have to keep the back in check. Don’t go to class rocking a Joe Dirt look. 

Pixie cuts are a modern, and frankly adorable haircut that everyone should have at least once in their life, as they strip away your safety blanket and lead to a new level of exposure that draws up confidence you may not know you had. (Not to mention time-less beauties like Audrey Hepburn rocked one—and who wouldn’t want to emulate this “Roman Holiday” beauty every once in awhile?). There are probably hundreds of cut and color combos you could get done, so be sure to approach with baby steps. Try some highlights with your micro duo, then if you want to dye it—go for it! And remember: when you do decide to take on the growth process, you will have bad hair days, but with the help of some hair growth secrets and an optimistic mindset the days that pass between pixie and bob will breeze bye!

xoxo Her Campus Cincinnati

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