Originally, I was going to do a "vs." thing between long hair and short hair. But I feel hair is a personal thing and who am I to tell people if long hair or short hair is better? I'm not a hair authority. Instead, I'll talk about the merits and downfalls of both lengths.
Once upon a time, my hair was this long.
Yes, really. Strangely enough, my hair never seemed that long when it was actually on my head. I'd cut it two years earlier and just always thought of it as kind of short. Looking at pictures and videos from this time, I realize now that it was indeed quite lengthy.
At the beginning of my senior year of high school, I decided I didn't really need four yards of hair. So I cut it into a bob.
I'm the one in the middle in the blue dress...in case you were confused.
My hair spent the rest of senior year growing out, mostly because I was in a show and the director wanted it to be longer.
Bobs weren't really all the rage in 19th-century France.
While gallivanting around Europe this past summer, I had the crazy thought that maybe I should get a pixie cut. Which I did.
Leading up to where we are today. It's still really short, but it's grown some!
Why, yes, I did take this picture while I was typing up this article.
I swear I had a point in showing you my hair history (hairstory? Eh...) beyond shamelessly sharing pictures of myself. My point is to demonstrate that I am more than qualified to discuss the pros and cons of short and long hair. I've seen it all.
LONG HAIR
PRO: Look at all the pretty Pinterest hairstyles!
CON: Your hair gets everywhere. You shed like a cat. If you're really lucky, you'll lose most of your hair in the shower and end up clogging your drain.
PRO: When you let your hair down after having it up all day, you feel like the heroine in a period drama when she lets her hair go free after having it pulled back in some period appropriate style. (Or maybe that's just me.)
CON: Long hair is so hot in the summer. If it's down, your neck and back are burning. If it's up, your head is hot from the added weight of it being piled atop your head.
PRO: You can swing your hair around dramatically.
CON: Sometimes, your hair tickles your arm and you freak out because you think it's a bug but it wasn't actually a bug. It was just your hair and now you feel silly for slapping yourself.
SHORT HAIR
*Note: I'm defining "short hair" as anything shorter than shoulder-length. That siad, some of these specifically have to do with pixie cuts.
PRO: Neck breezes! Your hair isn't a death sentence in the summer!
CON: You can't really dramatically flip your hair.
PRO: You can feel hip and with-it as you cut your hair in a style sported by such celebrities as Emma Watson, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson.
CON: Your hair may not look as cute as these celebrities 24/7. At various points since cutting my hair short and letting it grow back out, my hair has looked like any one of the following: Titanic-era Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Slater in that not-very-good 90s Robin Hood movie, and Jonathan Byers' long-lost twin.
PRO: Your hair takes five minutes to style. Maybe ever less.
CON: You can't pull your hair back if you're having a really bad hair day. Instead, you're forced to suffer the shame of everyone seeing your hair that you just couldn't get to cooperate.
I feel a con is too negative a thing to end this article on. So here's some positivity: Yay! Hair is cool! All the lengths are fabulous! Woo-hoo!
