President of the Hypocrite-of-the-Month Club

It all started last month when everybody started talking about the movie "Taken" and how good it is. They also told me I shouldn't go see it because it's about two girls that are traveling and get taken and blah blah blah blah blah. So they would tell me how good it was and finish with, "But promise me you won't go see it because you're traveling next month and everything." Each time I responded with, "Ok, ok. I won't go see it. Don't worry." Well...FALSE! I went and saw it, and I loved it!

It was definitely suspenseful but it didn't scare me. The girls in the movie got taken because they were totally stupid! You don't tell a stranger (it doesn't matter how attractive he is) where you're staying and why you're traveling and every tiny detail. I know I'm not invincible, but I am smarter than those girls so I am not really worried about being taken from my host family and sold to a bunch of nasty men for sex. So that was my first major hypocritical move...

...the next one is a little bigger. When Julie got swoop bangs, I couldn't believe it. I was pretty adamant that I would never get swoop bangs, EVER! I was pretty adamant that I wouldn't get bangs again, actually. My past experiences with bangs have been pretty awful so I decided to stay away from them.

A week or so before I left, Colette and I had a long conversation about our hairstyles and how we would change them. I told her I had thought about cutting my hair but didn't think I could actually do it because I like being able to pull my hair back and blah blah blah blah blah. I also reaffirmed my feelings about swoop bangs, and bangs in general, and I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't be cutting my hair anytime soon.

Justin has a fascination with taking a girls pony tail and cutting it off. I told him that the next time I cut my hair short, I will put it in a pony tail, allow him to cut it, and then I would head to the salon and get it fixed. Well, sorry Bro...

During my first week here, my hair just couldn't handle the humidity. If I put it in a pony tail, it would look like this by the end of the day: (not really me at my most attractive moment)

When I got home from school every day, I would look in the mirror, shudder, and wonder why it wasn't cracking. So Robyn made me a hair appointment. I walked in to the hair salon being very trusting of her abilities and very confident in my decision. I sat down, took out my braids, showed her a picture, and she pulled out the scissors. After three snips, inches of my hair fell to the ground. She gave it a nice scrub and then proceeded to cut my hair. After she blew it dry, I walked home blinking back tears. "It'll grow, it'll grow. It's just hair, it's just hair." When I got home, everyone in my host family noticed (of course) and I got lots of "Oh. It looks nice." I think it's the worst hair cut I've ever had. It didn't/doesn't look ANYTHING like the picture I showed her.

I went from this...

...to this (I hate the way the back looks)



And here's the bangs

I have found that if I take a straightener to it every morning I don't mind it so much; but if it rains or the humidity is really bad that day I stay away from mirrors and windows (basically anything that shows my reflection). The first few days (before I thought about taking a straightener to it) I forgot my hair looked so awful until I saw my reflection. Then I would shudder and blink back tears again.

It's been a little over a week since I cut it and I haven't actually cried over it so I feel pretty proud of myself for that. I have already convinced myself that I hate it so even if anyone pretends to like it, there's just no changing my opinion on the matter. I have ugly hair and I will keep having ugly hair for the next little while until it is actually long enough to do something with it.

So there you have it. I won't see Taken. FALSE I won't get bangs ever again. FALSE I won't cut my hair short for a long time. FALSE I will let Justin cut my pony tail off before cutting my hair short. FALSE What do we have? The President of the Hypocrite-of-the-Month Club!