Hair today, gone tomorrow…

Yesterday I chopped all my dreadlocks off. Actually, that’s a lie. C chopped them off for me. (Yes, I did ask him to, and it wasn’t spur of the moment thing – I’d been thinking about it for a while).

They’d gotten really long and heavy, in particular when they were wet. I did tell C if we were going to stay in Kaikoura for the winter and surf then I was going to lop them off a while ago. Anytime I’d been surfing (or in the shower) they would stay wet for hours (or even a whole day if I’d tied them up in a bun). That was fine in the summer when the weather was warm, but in the winter it was like walking around with a wet towel around your shoulders (over your clothes) afterwards, and then your clothes would be wet, you’d be damp and cold….. ya know.

Secondly – and I’ve struggled for this the last few years – but I really couldn’t fit a hood on for surfing very well! If you don’t surf you won’t know what I’m talking about or think that it matters; but actually in the winter we wear neoprene ‘hoods’ which are often attached to our winter wetsuits. They cover your head and keep it warm. Some water seeps in but if they fit correctly they keep your head a lot warmer meaning you can surf for longer. My dreds made it nearly impossible to wear one. If they were tied back and up in a bun or ponytail I’d look like a conehead and also the hood wouldn’t seal properly around my face. If I wore them down and out the front they looked like some sort of hairy alien octopus was trying to claw it’s way out of my wetsuit and attack my face as I was surfing – and it also felt like it.

I loved and hated them by the end. I did love how they looked, although honestly dreds (ironically) were the most high maintenance hairstyle I’ve ever had. If you don’t maintain them (especially at the roots) they looked scruffy and my hair -and there’s a lot of it – grows really quickly. When they were dry I loved them but wet they weighed a lot and even tied up used to feel heavy. If I was having a migraine or a bad headache day (which I seem to get a lot of) I used to dream of just shaving my whole head. So at least I compromised and just shaved half. They were starting to look really scruffy at the base and definitely needed a tidy up, so I either needed to do that or get rid of them.

We weighed them after we’d done it. They weighed almost 100 grams dry and just under 200 grams when wet (although I only dunked them in water – I’m sure when they were saturated having been in the ocean for hours they would have weighed more that that again). They’re currently sitting in a box in the lounge.

I went for a surf yesterday and I definitely noticed my head felt a lot colder! I also really liked the fact that when I got out I dried my hair and none of it was sitting on my back and making me wet afterwards (and the top bit dried immediately too). I might chop it all off a lot shorter eventually but for now I think I just need to go and get the line of the undercut straightened up a bit. C did a great job but the natural line of my hair from the dreds was a bit wonky and I think he was reluctant to hack away at the rest of my hair (which I am also grateful for!). I’ve actually got enough hair left that when it’s worn down it still looks like I have a full head of hair, it just feels so nice and light in comparison!