In December of 2022, I decided to cut my bangs.
To backtrack, I had been thinking of cutting them for quite a while. Long enough to make quite the lengthy Pinterest board, (private, of course), of every wispy style of bangs I could. In October of 2022, I had cut very long curtain bangs as a stepping stone and I had loved them. After not enough deliberation on my behalf, I decided to make the appointment.
No, I didn’t cut them myself. I had enough self-control and reflective skills to recognize that cutting straight was probably not my strongest ability, so I made the appointment for a few days after I made the decision.
The whole experience of actually sitting down in the chair and getting them cut probably was as nerve-racking as it could’ve been, as my best friend’s mom is my hairdresser. She’s a tough-love gal so she wasn’t really gonna put up with me being wishy-washy about this decision, she just did it.
I looked in the mirror and just stared. I can’t even really remember what happened after that, the next memory I had was sitting in my car. I was sobbing. I had pulled down the little mirror in my car and was trying to make my bangs grow instantly by just pulling on them constantly. It didn’t work.
I was absolutely prepared to live in the Olean Walmart parking lot. I had my hood pulled up with the strings tied as tight as I could so my face was barely even visible, just a tiny little circle for my eyes and nose to peek out of.
After about an hour of throwing myself a pity party for the totally autonomous decision I made, I made my way back to campus and then had stomach dropping realization that I had dance practice that night.
Dance is my favorite place to be on any given night because our team really is a family, so the fact that I was scared to walk into the Butler basement should tell you something. I walked in and warily said my hellos, then walked back to my favorite table to put my stuff down and finally, lower my hood.
They were so short, so blunt. Couldn’t be more blatantly in your face than they were and everyone was gonna stare with visible horror.
Everyone did stare, that was true. The looks on everyone’s faces allowed me to exhale. Everyone flooded me with compliments. Waves of “Oh my gosh, Leah! Bangs look so good on you” were followed by some saying “Okay my queen, I mean, I guess you CAN get prettier”. The most impactful reaction was my captain, Faith, who was the only other girl on the team that had bangs. She told me she was glad to have someone else who had bangs there.
I cut my bangs in December 2022.
They’re all grown out now and I don’t have to use headbands and clips to keep them out of my face anymore, but I loved them when I had them and I even learned to love them when I remember back to what they looked like when they were first cut. Even though I don’t have my bangs anymore, you bet I was one of the very first people to flood my friend with compliments when she posted her first photo with bangs.