to bang or not to bang, that is the question

This title is misleading.  There really was no question.  This is why.

 

This, my friends, is what one calls a "side effect" of childbirth.  When Pigtail was about two months old, all my hair fell out.  Okay, not all my hair, but an alarming amount.  A lot of my hair was to be found in my brush and in the shower.  

I wasn't concerned because I had heard this happens.  What I had not heard happens is that it comes back.  It starts over.  Sprouting from your head like a chia pet.  

I started to notice it over a month ago.  I thought the hairs were just baby fine, like peach fuzz, and oh isn't that interesting?  But they just kept growing.  So all of the sudden I looked like I had started a pixie cut and then chickened out.  

I showed it to my mom and a few friends and my hair stylist, begging them to say some variation of, "It's not that bad.  You can't even tell!" but instead they each made a face.  

    

I cut bangs for the first time since about the 7th grade when I got home from my honeymoon.  It was part of my new Mrs. Tremaine transformation, and at the time heavy bangs were everywhere.  Zooey Deschanel had them (crush!), Heidi Klum cut long ones, even Reese had wispy bangs that skimmed her brows.  

   

 my bangs in 2008

 So for a time, I liked my bangs.  They were fun.  I could do blunt straight across and swooped to the side or even pulled back with a bobby pin.  But last summer I was done with bangs.  Bangs were over for me.  I grew them out, enduring every painful stage of the growing-out-bangs process.

   

no bangs in early 2010 

It took me about 10 months for them to look like layers and not like growing-out-bangs.  

Here's the deal: I actually think I look better with bangs.  I think they're more flattering to my face than my high forehead.  But bangs are a pain.  Bangs make a medium hair day into a terrible hair day.  Bangs are the opposite of Lazy Beauty.   

But the hormones made me a chia head.  Something had to be done.  There was no other way. 

 

New bangs last weekend at the film festival. 

I'm fine with it, I really am.  It's just hair, right?

*

These are not my favorite types of posts, the ones that feature pictures of ME.  They make me nervous.  But I'm doing this for the sake of women's bangs everywhere.  Or to highlight the plight of a hormonal new mom.  You pick.  

Please lament your own bangs story in the comments.  Do you or do you not choose bangs?