Mom Hair

"Mom Hair (from Urban Dictionary)

When a woman who has long hair cuts it very short. Usually done after having a child when the woman has no time to deal with her hair.

You remember how long her hair used to be? Now she's got that weird Mom Hair going on."

I have resisted now for months the urge to cut my hair. I went from mid-back to shoulder length when Little Man was 2 months old after one particularly bad spit-up when I was wearing my hair down (let me just tell you how gross that was). Now, he is 7 months old, and getting quite good at pulling my hair out of it's pony-tail holder. I feel that it is time once again to go under the scissors. That's right, after years of protesting that I would never do it, I am going to get Mom Hair.

This will not be the first time I have cut my hair short -- when I was in the 4th or 5th grade, I had it cut above my ears, and my best friend proceeded to tease me by calling me by her brother's name for months. As cute as my mother might have thought it was, shaggy and boyish was not a good cut for a chubby kid with large, thick glasses. By the eighth grade, my hair was more than halfway down my back, and remained somewhere between there and my shoulders until college when I once again decided to go short. I cut it and let it grow to maybe chin length, and then cut it again, each time in a slightly more haphazard way. I even had my roommate cut it once. The worst cut I had was junior year, when I chopped it to pixie-length and dyed it fire engine red. Once again, super short hair is not a good look for an overweight, square-faced female unless she actually wants to look like a boy, which really, I didn't. So after that I once again let it grow out, keeping it between shoulder and lower-back length. While I sometimes had the urge to chop it again, my husband's pleas and looks back in my photo albums from Junior year have kept those urges at bay. Until now.

Now, my reasons are quite different for getting a short hair cut -- I'm not doing it because my mother thinks it will be cute, or because of some college-age exploration, but because my very active, very loving little boy finds great pleasure in trying his best to help me go bald. Pain is a rather good motivator. And while my husband is lamenting my decision (he would love it if I grew my hair long enough to sit on, I'm sure), the thought of not having to constantly pull my hair back is rather liberating. I am very much looking forward to having a "wash-and-go" cut, especially for the summer. I hate how hot and heavy my hair feels on 90 degree days, when pulling it back tight enough to get it off of my neck does nothing but give me a nasty headache, and doesn't serve all that much purpose as wisps keep finding their way out of the ponytail holder. 

And In many ways, I am proud of this mark of motherhood. Now, I don't plan on joining the haircut with a pair of high-waisted jeans or anything (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/44801db035/mom-jeans) but I kind of enjoy looking like a Mom. It's taken me long enough to get here after all, what with that whole PhD thing taking up a good portion of my young adulthood. I like the way I look with a baby strapped (sometimes literally) to my hip. They really do make rather adorable fashion accessories, until they spit up everywhere. But at least now I won't have to worry about getting that spit up in my hair. And if anyone points out (as I'm sure they will) how I have succumbed to this particular stereotype, I will proudly shake my head and say "Yep, I have Mom hair. And I love every reason why." (Well, except the spit-up thing, but they don't need to know that, now do they?)