A work in progress

I'm kind of weird about my hair. I have been since high school. Cutting it, dying it, whatever. It's the perfect place on the human body to experiment because no matter how badly you screw it up, it will always come back. Well, unless you really screw it up.

The past few years I'd had my hair pretty short. It was kind of a messy spikey deal; some would call it a fauxhawk. It was pretty simple to set up. A little gel and some fancy stuff with the hands and viola, instant hipster. Even though it takes minimal effort to set up it was too fragile. I couldn't touch it without screwing it up. I just hate being that way about my hair.

So I've decided to grow it out.

I've been at it for a couple months now. To say it's at an awkward length would be an understatement. For a while I was just letting the hair fall into its natural part. The problem is that my hair wants to part all the way on the edge of my head. So all of the hair on the top of my head is laying in the same direction. It looks almost like I'm trying to force a comb-over. Or worse yet, like the part is a hinge for my hair, and if you were to grab the lip on the opposite side you could pop open the top of my head and reveal my brain.

There really isn't much I can do with it. It's probably at a perfectly good length for a normal guy, but I'm quite abnormal. To make matters worse I don't really know what I want. In high school I had it to about my chin and the maintenance was pretty mild; much less then when it's short.

What I didn't expect was to have such an audience for endeavor. The majority of which are my co-workers. Mostly the older men, most of which are losing their hair. I didn't realize that I held the hopes and dreams of so many men in my beautiful brown hair. One of the gentlemen at work had not seen me in a week and then when he saw me he was remarked, "Wow, J.P. That hair is really growing out!" Everyday someone has a comment for my head, and being starved for attention I am there and willing to receive it. "Trying something new today?", "What kind of product do you use?", "What, did the cat attack you in your sleep?" I receive all kinds of inquiries.

I'm in a slow and steady race and I have no idea what the finish line looks like. I was reading the new issue of Paste and I noticed I have a very similarly shaped head to Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. Then I noticed that he's got a pretty good look. I mean, I'm not down for that shirt and tie deal all the time, but I can pull of a shaggy haircut as much as the next hipster. I guess that's my temporary goal. I have no idea if it will work out. Please stand by for gratuitious angst.

Things have been pretty mundane lately, so this is just something to do. A project. When people ask me about my hair I say it's a work in progress, which is my way of saying I really don't know.

I'm probably giving this too much though.