With my Austrian’s help, we cut a long asymmetrical bob with some longer bits in front. We cut off about seven inches at the longest part in the back. I found a YouTube video using pony tails that looked like it would work pretty well, and it did. I didn’t even bother refining the cut, I liked the messy chaos of it! It was fun to braid it damp, and then have messy waves. It was also fun straight.

Yeah, there was a brief moment of tears. They came like a wave, as grief so often does. And then the grief just flowed right back out of me. Ok, I like it when pain visits but doesn’t stay.

When I started thinking about how to walk this journey with my hair, I jotted a crafted prayer on a paper that I have here at my desk:

I am making my hair an offering. It is not stolen from me, I give it to the One who gave it to me. Giving my hair is an embodied prayer.

Hair matters. It’s difficult to articulate how… but it does.

Maybe this is holy ground.

I don’t know.

Sending love your way!

Carmen