Have you ever felt after a hair-cut that your hair would never grow again? Well I did. And believe me, it is no joke to grow your hair. Here goes my story.

 

On May 5 2007, I was going to have my first hair-cut in 13 years. Posing a confident look, I checked in The Beleza Unisex Salon in the Treasure Island at exactly 5.30 pm. However, when I looked at one of the weird looking hairdressers, my fears gripped me. “They are going to spoil your hair. Run girl run. Don’t do it”, I heard someone inside me screaming.

When the cut started, I felt my heart beats going really faster than usual as my precious locks of hair kept falling on my shoulders. “Oh gosh, my hair is going!”, that someone kept yelling inside while I wondered why the dresser couldn’t hear it.

 

I always dreamed of having long, healthy and curly hair. And so I didn’t even get a trimming in 13 years. “That’s quite a record huh!” a colleague had said in disbelief once.

 

And so here I was- trying to prove that I really cared for my hair enough to get a good cut. More than thrice, I think, I had ‘warned’ the dresser that I wanted only a ‘smart cut’ without tampering a lot with its length. However, as he cut my hair, I felt that he had nearly forgotten my instructions. So I had to remind him, “Don’t you think you are making it too short”. “You have got lots of dead hair and it needs to be cut madam,” he had a point. 

The cut was over in less than 10 minutes what seemed like an eternity to me. So how did I look? Apparently I was more upset about the shortness of my hair than the so-called new look the dresser had promised me.

I went straight to a friend’s house from where we had to go to attend a wedding. This was the time when I would get the ‘first-hand’ feedback on my hair-cut. Barring a couple of compliments, most people didn’t even notice my cut. Those who did, only said, “You looked better before.” I felt my heart sinking.

The only person who could return some sense into me was my mother. The moment I got back home that night, I sought her advice. What she told me nearly took my breath away. “Why? Your hair looks so thin and short!”

My fears were back again. Now one of the biggest nightmares of my life was staring back at me. “You hair is never gonna grow now.”  I actually put both my hands on my ears.

 

I spent the next many nights crying and cursing that moment when I had decided to get a hair cut. Every morning I would wake up with a heavy heart and look into the mirror sadly. After washing my hair, I felt worse as it looked shorter than ever. I would spend hours combing and changing hairstyles to make my hair at least appear longer.

I spoke to one of my friends on phone telling him about the cut. “Oh well, girls look better in long hair I think”, he was blunt enough to speak his mind.

 

Meanwhile, I had to pack my bags too as I was shifting to Pune for a job. That made things just worse. Everyone in my office made me all the more conscious of the length of my hair. I would stare at girls with longer hair at my office and pity my own.

However, I never abandoned my usual hair care regime. I would oil my hair and massage it every night before sleeping. I would keep it tied till the time I was at home. My mother advised me to keep the ends of my hair tied as much as possible for growth. I would never tie my hair while it was wet and combed them at least four times a day. Still my hair wasn’t growing.

However, my new job and the new adjustments in the city made me extremely busy soon. One Sunday morning, I was at my cousin’s place over lunch. Incidentally, we were discussing hair-cuts. Almost a month had passed every since my cut now. Just when my aunt commented, “Your hair has grown considerably I think.” I actually stared at my hair again as I untied it and realized something I had been so anxious about since a month.

 

“Yeah, it has grown,” I exclaimed in disbelief feeling my hair on my shoulders. Everyone just burst out laughing while I had tears of joy. Before I knew it, my hair had actually grown to the previous length!