Pixie

I have never worn my hair short, as long as I had anything to say about it. This is because I grew up in a time when my parents didn't care about my opinion about how I should wear my hair, as well my opinions about lots of other things.  I was so jealous of my friends who could wear their hair in braids, or sleep in those squishy pink rollers and have banana curls, or wear it in a high pony tail that swayed from side to side when they walked. For some reason my parents wanted their daughters to wear their hair short. Really short, to the point where people often mistook us for boys. It was the Twiggy era- the pixie was in style, so that's the haircut we got.  People told me all the time that I looked just like Twiggy, because of my boy haircut, and probably also because I was a bony little thing.  I would have much rather looked like Dorothy, with her braids and curls and hair bows and womanly curves.

There were a couple of other gender identity issues going on with me at the time. First of all, I have one of those French gender-neutral names. The man who gave me my haircuts at the Best & Co.* hair salon had the same name as me. He would go on and on about how adorable he thought this was, and share the story with anyone walking by, while he gave me my boy haircut. Also, around this time a son of my mother's friend came to visit from France. He had the same name as me.  And short, blonde hair, just like mine.  Quelle horreur!

So, I now have longish hair. In my teens and twenties I went through a hair rebellion phase. The perm was in- I really have too much hair and it's pretty curly- perming it was ridiculous.  But I loved my gigantic hair!  I'm pretty sure my parents hated it.  To this day they still comment on my hair and how they think I could really use a haircut.


*Best & Co. was a chain of department stores in the NYC area, according to Wikipedia "known for it's tastefully styled and proper women's clothes and its sturdy children's wear."  I got my hair cut at the East Orange store and we would visit Santa every Christmas at the 5th Avenue store in Manhattan. They closed in 1971.