2023, Family, pets, Uncategorized

The Burden Of Beauty

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The breed standard for our Cesky Terrier calls for a rather long skirt and long fur on the legs, with long bangs that go all the way to the tip of his nose. The fur on his skirt and legs is very fine and feathery, and attracts weeds and sticks. He really dislikes being brushed, but he would be a tangled mess if we didn’t attend to him. Here he is sitting on the bench in the front looking for bunnies in the garden. He is a rather pretty boy by Cesky standards. It takes a lot to maintain that beauty.

Husband always wanted to grow his hair long when he was in college in the early 70’s but his hair is so curly he could only get it a little above his shoulders before he started looking like Bozo the Clown. My boy cousins in Pipestone were mortified that their dad insisted they keep getting crew cuts when everyone else had longer hair and bangs. Uncle Harvey thought that a crew cut was all a boy needed to look good. I had the standard long, straight hair popular in the 70’s. My mother had a wash and set every week at the beauty parlor. I read the other day that a North Dakota man holds the record for the world’s longest beard, at 17.5 feet. Oh, the things we do for looks!

Who did you want to look like when you were a teenager? When have you been the happiest with your hair?

23 thoughts on “The Burden Of Beauty”

  1. I can’t think of one single time I was ever happy with my hair. I think of it as “in between” hair. It’s not curly and it’s not straight. If I do curl it, curl doesn’t hold. If I do straighten it, the straight doesn’t hold. So I end up with kind of wavy hair that makes me crazy.

    When I was in high school, I wanted to look like Cher. I wanted to be taller than I was. I wanted to be thinner than I was. I wanted to be leggier than I was and I would’ve given anything for that long straight black hair. It’s been a rough 28 years living with YA and her long straight black hair. I have hair envy every day of my life.

    But on a happy note, it’s Golden Retriever Day at the fair today. And all the golden retrievers are always immaculately shampooed and brushed.

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  2. I have the “straight” hair in spades, so I was probably happiest in late 60s-early 70s when that was the thing. There was a British model I wanted to look like (not Twiggy), I may remember her name later. I like my hair now, very short and straight, and people I’ve known all my life seem to think it suits me better than the page boy I wore all those adult years.

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  3. My hair is happiest now. It is long but naturally wavy and the summer humidity keeps it fluffy. It’s not totally gray but a soft color. My mother used to give me permanents that made my hair full and fuzzy. My stepmother did the same when I was a senior in high school. Then she cut it so short it made me cry. It stayed too short most of that year so I never needed to have it even trimmed. I hated it. My summer after my freshman year in college in 1961, I worked at a restaurant near Brainerd where the woman owner bugged me to get my hair trimmed and curled and even offered to take me to a hairdresser and I finally had one of my coworkers give me a permanent. It was so.fuzzy the owner was embarrassed but never apologized for her insistence. Then I let my hair grow long and straight for the rest of the sixties before I had it cut short again.  Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”

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  4. I have my mom’s hair – rather thin, fine textured, and stick straight. I wanted to look like any girl/woman who had long thick wavy hair. As a very young child I did have a few natural curls but they were gone by second grade. Pixie cuts were all the rage back then and I had one from second through sixth grade. In junior high school I grew it longer and also tolerated perms to get some curl. Come senior high and it was long straight hair parted either in the middle or just off center and hooked behind my ears. I’ve never been completely satisfied with my hair and I have changed it frequently – very short and straight, short and permed, long enough for a ponytail or banana clip, medium length and permed, my natural medium brown, different shades of blonde (including nearly white), bangs vs. no bangs, etc. Mom didn’t have any gray hair until she turned 90 and I seem to have inherited that trait. These days no more perms ever, fairly short, light brown (winter) to blonde (summer – my hair sun bleaches easily), and bangs to hide a high forehead. The worst part is having a scalp that sweats profusely in hot, humid weather (another mom trait). On those days I am tempted to shave it all off.

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  5. My mom kept my hair very short in a pixie cut until I was in junior high. I always wanted long hair. I was so envious of the girls who could wear their hair long and straight and parted in the middle. What a simple, elegant style!

    In junior high my mom allowed me to grow my hair but it was my responsibility to take care of it. I couldn’t get it to grow very long – just past my shoulders, and it was really curly and full. It was almost impossible to comb or brush through it in the summer when it was humid. I can be unrealistically stubborn about such things. I really wanted long hair! I’d get it cut and try again, or try a layered cut, which made the curly fullness even worse. One younger guy in high school called me “Bushes”.

    My best hair is now. I started going gray during menopause and for a long time I had two-toned hair, silvery gray on top and reddish brown underneath so that when I put it up it looked really good. During the pandemic my hair grew down to my hips, the longest it has ever been. Finally, in 2020, I achieved a lifetime goal! I’ve had it cut a few times, cutting it by 10” once, and 6” the last two times. Now it’s down almost to the middle of my back again after being cut in March. It’s mostly gray with a little reddish brown still remaining underneath. It’s still impossibly curly and frizzy when the weather is hot and humid.

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  8. My appearance is not of much concern for me. I have never had very long hair. With my touch issues it can irritate me. I only grew a beard in the 70’s to irritate the uptight old teachers as many of us young teachers did. I keep that short. I have btw a former colleague who looks just like Red Greene. Red Greene was amazed when he was in Duluth. Mr. Tuxedo has not cut his hair for a couple years except trims. It is a ways down his shoulders. It has curled at that length. His sister cut the very curly hair she loves for the summer camp season but is growing it out now. My son’s hair is long. I just cut Sandy’s real hair way back so it does not show. It gets whispier all the time. My hair and beard are pure white. She had beautiful thick black wavy hair as a child like her father.

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  10. None of my dogs needed a haircut. All of them needed nails cut. I remember my mother holding them in a bath towel and the pursuit to capture them. Precious, the Australian sheep dog, needed two people to hold her. What a rebel! We humans had to prepare well in advance for the battle. Good memories.

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  11. I had a ponytail for a few years in the ‘90’s. My hair was pretty curly and fussy and it just got thick and bushy.
    Once I started thinning on top, I didn’t want to be the bald Guy with a ponytail.

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    1. In high school it got bushy.
      I went to an old fashion barber with a barber pole and everything, for several years. I asked him for a flat top and even at that point he told me I was thin enough it wasn’t really gonna work.

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