Another Magic Haircut
A week and a half ago, I cut my hair again.
You might scroll down and see a post about a haircut from October and think "Megan, you cut all your hair off a few months ago--chill."
But I firmly believe that this is different.
For a few weeks, or, all of January, I had the nagging feeling that I ought to quit dance. I was convinced that I had gotten into Joffrey on a fluke, that I wasn't progressing, that dance was no longer fun, etc. etc. I cried in all my teacher conferences and I called my parents daily. After one particular call, I sat on a bench for about thirty minutes and decided that perhaps what I really, truly needed was not to quit dance, but do change something in my life drastically. Quitting dance would achieve that. Getting a bob might also do the same. I told this to my mom and she was enthusiastic. Get a piercing or a perm, she said. Just not a tattoo, not yet.
So that Wednesday, after walking to Laduree and getting some pastries (and speaking French to the girl behind the counter), I made an appointment and I got a haircut. It was the first time in years that I walked in and just told them to cut my hair off. Not "I still need to be able to put it in a bun" or "I'm a dancer" or "I like putting it in a ponytail" just "cut it to about chin length." I pulled up pictures of Karlie Kloss on my phone and I asked for the ends to be choppy instead of blunt and I walked out of the salon with hair that no longer could go up in any sort of ponytail, let alone a bun.
The next day, my teacher told me that I was suddenly the Megan she wanted to see in class, "like Sunshine," she said, after a semester of comparing me to a shadow. I got a "good, Megan" in jazz class, in which I struggle like no other. I balanced in an arabesque en pointe for such a long time that instead of snapping for me (which rarely happens), my classmates clapped. I know it's stupid to think that a haircut really matters, but I think it does. I look less professional in class, since I'm always in pigtails, but the auditions I've been to feel more positive and in class I feel less stressed. It's mostly mindset, but a big change does a lot for me.
You might scroll down and see a post about a haircut from October and think "Megan, you cut all your hair off a few months ago--chill."
But I firmly believe that this is different.
For a few weeks, or, all of January, I had the nagging feeling that I ought to quit dance. I was convinced that I had gotten into Joffrey on a fluke, that I wasn't progressing, that dance was no longer fun, etc. etc. I cried in all my teacher conferences and I called my parents daily. After one particular call, I sat on a bench for about thirty minutes and decided that perhaps what I really, truly needed was not to quit dance, but do change something in my life drastically. Quitting dance would achieve that. Getting a bob might also do the same. I told this to my mom and she was enthusiastic. Get a piercing or a perm, she said. Just not a tattoo, not yet.
So that Wednesday, after walking to Laduree and getting some pastries (and speaking French to the girl behind the counter), I made an appointment and I got a haircut. It was the first time in years that I walked in and just told them to cut my hair off. Not "I still need to be able to put it in a bun" or "I'm a dancer" or "I like putting it in a ponytail" just "cut it to about chin length." I pulled up pictures of Karlie Kloss on my phone and I asked for the ends to be choppy instead of blunt and I walked out of the salon with hair that no longer could go up in any sort of ponytail, let alone a bun.
The next day, my teacher told me that I was suddenly the Megan she wanted to see in class, "like Sunshine," she said, after a semester of comparing me to a shadow. I got a "good, Megan" in jazz class, in which I struggle like no other. I balanced in an arabesque en pointe for such a long time that instead of snapping for me (which rarely happens), my classmates clapped. I know it's stupid to think that a haircut really matters, but I think it does. I look less professional in class, since I'm always in pigtails, but the auditions I've been to feel more positive and in class I feel less stressed. It's mostly mindset, but a big change does a lot for me.
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