Day 206/365 Vanity and Oil Spills

Living in Virginia in the summer is no place to have long hair. I've been meaning to get it cut for awhile, but couldn't decide how I wanted it cut, meanwhile it kept growing. I had long hair most of my life till my mid twenties, when I cut it off because I got my first "real job". After hearing from numerous people how that was an incredibly bad idea, it started getting long again. Now I find myself 54 years old, with a daughter who tells me my hair makes me look older (it probably does).

But here's the thing - somehow I raised a teenager and my hair didn't turn gray. Probably due to a long-ago Cherokee genetic input (that's another family history story), but still, it's my own personal vanity that my hair looks younger than I do.

I work for myself at home, so no reason to cut it for a job, and outside of my daughter no one cares much one way or the other. But boy is it hot in the summer.

So along comes the oil spill, which may kill off what's left of my hometown and my favorites beaches where I grew up.

And turns out there's this company, Matter of Trust, that's collecting hair (any kind of hair: human,dog,cat, whatever) to stuff into nylons (remember nylons?). The nylons form hair berms, which are then stuffed into larger berms, and laid along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, and they soak up the oil.




This is a good cause.

I may finally cut my hair for this. It's to save the beaches I played on as a child, and partied on as a young adult. I almost got married on one of those beaches. My favorite picture of my parents was taken on the shores of Ship Island. I have still have seashells and sand I collected years ago from the Biloxi beaches.

But vanity is a funny thing. Once it turns gray, I won't care, but it's really hard to part with right now.

I'll shave the dogs instead.