It all started just the other day. I hadn't hardly slept the whole night and getting up wasn't easy. The city was baking in the heat of the morning, and so was I. Pulling myself out of bed has never been easy, but today something made everything worse. Something was clinging to me, dragging my head back into the matress. With near herculean effort and pulled myself away and came face to face with my foe. There, starring back at me in the mirror, I saw the problem. At long last, the day had come. *the preceeding wass moody and cool- like a black and white movie with bad editing- and should have be read in a gravely voice* This is the end of and era. You know those times that goes down in history as, well, historic? The day was the Forth of July, 2005. Kinda appropriate.
I decided the moment I woke up and saw myself in the mirrow. Or "Mirror" as you may like to spell it. I just looked up and...and decided. "Yep, I'm done with these guys."
I told Janie later that day. I've known forever that she might be "hostile" to the idea, but she actually took it really well. When we went home for a quick dinner, she grabbed the phone and booked the appointment, and that was it.
I had decided that today was the day. And like a British Red Coat clinging futily to American soil, my dreads had seen their last sunrise. I was getting a haircut.
Now, I have to explain something. I haven't had a haircut since highschool, and I've been out of college for a year. I've had my dreads since April 2002, the year before that I had been growing my hair out for the dreads, and the year before THAT I had been giving myself haircuts at home, a la buzzcut.
We arrived late for my appointment, of course - like we do for everything, but it was alright. We walked in, and immediately there were looks of concern as each of the hair dressers checked the list to who was up for the next customer. One young lady came out, saw the list, saw me, and just left. I saw her talking to one of the "senior" hair dressers, who to the front to ask me some questions, then return to the back, no doubt with a few last words of comfort.
Truth be told, she may have been worried at first, but she did a wonderful job. At first they assumed what most people assume - that having dreads removed can only be done by shaving a person's head (perferably the head to which the dreads attached). Not so! After I was sat down in the fateful chair and she stated to cut, we were able to leave about 3 inches of undreaded hair, at least! Janie was completly grossed out by the contents of my dreads, which was probably a mixture of dandruff and old dread wax, but which looked more like powdery white boogers. Ew. Janie got her fingers right in there to help with pulling dreads apart and helping me to decide what to do afterwards. She's so great. I guess I had thought more about cutting the dreads off than about what the aftermath would look like.
Man, it's getting late. I'm not used to this new-fangled bloggin' thinger.
Okay, to make a long story a little shorter, I'll skip to the end and let the photos in PART II tell the rest of the story.
In the end I have to say that things turned out great. I'm totally pumped about the new "do" and feel way more comfortable. Now I can take a normal shower like other people and I don't have to sleep on a pile of rope!
Why did I do it? You mean, other than being sick of having the same hair cut for the last 3 years? Well, I was getting a little too warm in the summer heat, and I think I was starting to get head aches from the weight of hair on my head. Partly, I was tired of being "the guy with the dreads." It felt like people only saw my hair, and I didn't like that.
Well, that's all for now. I'm tired and I'm missing Superman, The Animated Series. Go look at the photos. I'm going to bed.
-D
Don't hesitate any longer... GO look at the photos below!
