Last year I had a rough breakup that tore my heart in pieces but it had to be done. After that, I wanted to change my look. I wanted to do something different with my hair.

At first, I thought I wanted to dye it. I didn't want to mess with short term hair dye anymore, anything I did would have to be permanent but I was unwilling to commit to a color and I really wanted to go to a salon to get it dyed for the first time. But I'm a college kid, not necessarily broke but would rather spend my money elsewhere. Then I thought I could cut it because that's a smaller commitment, but I really love how I've been getting my haircut and I just started getting this style a year ago.

I went online and found undercuts. I knew I obviously wasn't brave enough to shave the side of my head but I really liked the idea. Having some of the bottom of my head shaved sounded like a really good idea the more I thought about it. It would be easier to style because there's less hair to curl, it would look cute to put up, it would make me different from every sorority girl on the row, it's easy to hide if I need to look professional, and it would make band camp a little less hot.

I told my mom I decided to shave the back of my head and showed her pictures and she decided she wanted one too. We didn't get a design or anything because we wanted to be able to maintain it on our own.

The lady who cut mine didn't believe I really wanted it so she cut it long but still way shorter than my other hair. When I got to school I bought a razor and used the borders she made but cut it to a length I preferred. My mom loves her undercut as much as I love mine. Hers is a little less noticeable though because her hair is already short, she likes hers because it makes her thick hair feel lighter. My sister actually followed suit and got an undercut about a week after my mom and I did. My sister and I have long hair that goes past our shoulders so when we put our hair up, the undercut is obvious.

I plan on donating the hair that the salon cut to charity and I recommend anyone else considering getting this type of haircut do the same. It's some long hair that charities would really appreciate.

While my grandma and some other conservative people hate it to this day, it makes me happy and I feel like I can kick butt if I need to, just because of my haircut. I like being different and controversial but I still feel like I'm playing it safe. I really like how it starts conversations because college students are usually really impressed that I had the guts to shave part of my head and rock it. The only downsides I have found are not being able to pull off certain hairstyles like two french braids.

Though I love what I've done with my hair, I'm concerned about putting my hair up to go to a formal event because the undercut will make whatever I do to my hair look less formal. In the end, I'll probably just put it up and learn to it because the pros of my hairstyle far out weight the cons.

I love having an undercut.