Getting a Haircut in the Third Trimester

A friend gave me Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, a funny book written for women who don't get the truth about the ins and outs of pregnancy from their doctors or families.  I read it when I was pregnant with my daughter and thought it was hysterical and, in retrospect, so true. ,For example, pregnancy is really longer than nine months. You don't get your body back the way it was, ever. And you don't always glow.  Well, today I committed a no-no by going for a radically different haircut, which is ill-advised in the Girlfriends book. The book advises against getting all impulsive and doing a style that nowhere near suits you.  Something you may regret and not be able to maintain. Since June - no, since 2006 - I have wanted a short haircut so badly but have always chickened out.  My hair has been the same length since 1995. I let it grow long, then I merely trim it. That has been the extent of my hairstyling for 15 years. Secretly, I have envied women who are brave enough to sport a short haircut. How free they must feel and be, not to be defined by that mass of hair cascading around and below their shoulders. Well, I am half way there. This morning I went to the Aveda Institute in Manhattan, where you can get a cut by a student for really cheap.  My intent was to chop it all off. I love Sharon Stone's short hair, which she has kept short for years. But when I mentioned her style to my stylist today, the 19-year old student said he'd never heard of her. Wow, did I feel old! It was no use. I couldn't expect a drastic and modern short do at a training school. My impulse for freedom would have to wait. Instead I went for what the student could handle and was a perfectly acceptable compromise for me, considering I was only paying $20 and getting silky smooth Aveda products applied to my fly-away dry, clumpy locks.  I stepped away with hair as soft as butter, nicely thinned out, layered and hitting the nape of my neck.  I hadn't completely committed a Girlfriend's faux pas after all, even though I had desperately wanted to.  My haircut, though much shorter, was still not met with gaped looks from my family and friends. In fact, my daughter didn't even notice the change until I had to get it out of her. For now, I will stick with this haircut and view it as the stepping stone to what I really want. Once the baby is born and I have a free two hours, I am going to the nearest salon where the stylists have heard of Sharon Stone and give me what I want: short hair...even if it does cost me an arm and a leg.