Being 24: Getting a haircut…from a professional

I was right, being 24 helped me start my career.

Life begins at 24, not 40.

Now that I have gotten my start, I have decided that I need to start doing things a bit more professionally.

To celebrate my last week in retail, and because I was well overdue for one, I decided to get my haircut.

Now while to most people, this isn’t out of the ordinary, I haven’t had my haircut, by a hairdresser, in a good 12 years.

Yep…that’s half of my life.

Before you start judging I will defend myself by saying I have curly hair. It is curly to the point where people think I am Jewish. As such there is really nothing I can do to my hair, as it will always just curl up into a little ball like Sophia from The Golden Girls. Because of this, when my hair gets too long I shave it all off and start again.

That is the circle of my hair life.

When I first got my new job, my partner suggested I pay for a haircut to celebrate (and I think to save him from having to do it for me).

I realised that he was right and that the time had come for me to start paying for a haircut.

I went into the hairdresser yesterday and like a three year old, was nervous about what was to come.

I sat down in the chair anxiously and my hairdresser asked me what I wanted done.

Fuck, I didn’t know. My mum used to tell the hairdresser what to do.

Awkwardly I told her I wasn’t really sure and explained what irritated me about hair in general. Strangely this semi-rant satisfied my hairdresser and I was immediately calmed.

What followed was potentially the greatest hour of my life; I got my hair rubbed, almost falling asleep in the process, and discussed Masterchef, wine, Dolly Parton and how much hair I have.

I awoke from my conversation haze to see that she had found a way to keep some curls, but get rid of the copious amounts of hair on my head that used to drive me mental.

I was happy.

What does this have to do with being 24?

To me, haircuts are a process that adults engage in and somehow I never wanted to participate in said process. Now that I am finally starting my career I feel like I am finally a grown-up and now need to do things that adults do so that I can progress to the next level.

To most it may have just been a haircut, but to me it was the process of shedding the last emotional shackles of my childhood and claiming my future.

Is that enough of a justification?