Bangs, How I Despise You

H: Hairstyles
I was born towards the end of the feathered bangs area.  All growing up, I had bangs.  Bangs can be cute now, but mine weren't.  Even though I've always been to hairdressers (Mom has always been afraid to cut my hair), they often would make my bangs crooked... and they weren't the long type of bangs either.  Other than my early childhood years, when they rested in an awkward curl on my forehead, they were cropped short at about half an inch above my eyebrows.  Awkward.

So I'll go ahead and take you through a hair tour of my life.  My hair looked absolutely awful until I was almost fifteen.

As a toddler, I actually had blonde ringlets.  My hair was pretty cute back then, minus the nineties-style bows I ALWAYS wore until I became old enough to strongly protest.  I'm not sure how old I was here.  Somewhere in between one and two, I believe.

Here is an example of my feathered bangs stage.

This isn't a style I wore often, but I saw it, laughed hysterically, and had to share.  See, my mom (like myself) does not have a big passion for fixing hair.  She always had trouble putting my hair into the "cute" pigtails and ponytails that all my friends had.  She would try her best, she really would, but these hairdos never seemed to turn out right.  I was about eight here.

And then, of course, there was the period of time where I thought it was SO cool to add tiny braids all over my hair.  Supa cute, right?  I was ten here.

I grew out my hair when I was in sixth grade.  Unfortunately, I was at the point where I still didn't really care what I looked like.  My hair was constantly tangled and NOT looking good.

Mom finally convinced me to get my hair cut a few inches above my shoulders.  This was in eighth grade or so.  Some teens look good with short hair, but this just wasn't my best cut.

Towards the end of eighth grade, I was persuaded to grow out my bangs.  For some reason, I was terrified of this idea.  I don't like change, so the thought of transforming my entire look made me nervous.  I had very low self esteem at the time, so I was positive I would look ugly with long bangs.  Sadly, I didn't know much about hair fashion, so when I decided to go ahead and grow them out, I didn't know how to make them look nice.  No side-parts or swooping to the side.  I just kind of let them... grow.

When it came time for another haircut, my awkwardly-growing bangs reached my chin and the rest of my hair reached my shoulders.  I knew my hair didn't look good, but I didn't understand why at the time so I told the lady who cut my hair to do whatever she wanted.  She layered my hair and showed me how to part my bangs on the side.  For a couple of years after this, I kept my hair very layered and fairly short.  I loved this style.

As you can probably imagine, I got SO many more compliments on my hair than I ever had in my life.  For the first time in a long time, I actually felt pretty.  I firmly believe that a good haircut is so important for your self esteem.  It can change your look so much.  I got this haircut towards the end of the eighth grade, and I think this was a big reason why I finally started caring how I looked.  I started wearing makeup for the first time the summer before my freshman year of high school, I started TRYING to dress in cute clothes, and I finally started holding myself with confidence.
My hair has a natural wave to it, so I'll occasionally wear it scrunched, like this.

And finally, this is pretty much my haircut now.  I don't have very many layers since I need to be able to pull my hair up for work.  My hair is a little longer than it is in this photograph, but it's close.  (I actually need a haircut, but I'm trying to wait until sooner before I leave for college.)  I don't know if it's incredibly stylish, but it works for me.