Hair is a rather curious thing. At the moment, mine is the longest it's ever been in my life. It's coarse, and I have LOTS of it, so I usually don't have it this long because it's just too hot. But thanks to my fantastic hairstylist, who only charges $14 a cut and knows how to thin my hair out properly, I can wear it longer without feeling like I'm wearing a fur coat on my head. I even managed to see her twice this year -- 2x more than usual! Another reason I prefer this length is because I use my hair to regulate body temperature. If it's cold out, I wear my hair down, and if I'm too hot, I put my hair up.
My hair has undergone some major transformations over the years. I was born with a lot of hair, or so I'm told -- as a newborn my hair was dead straight and stood on end, prompting people to say I looked like a monkey! My mother always kept my hair fairly short, as she didn't like long hair, and was a control freak about it all the way through primary school. All of my school photos were horrible, and I didn't keep a single one. I hated my hair so much I didn't even want to go to school some days... When I got older, my hair began to get curly, oddly enough. I think it was when I was in Australia that it started to curl naturally, and for some reason, these days the longer it gets, the curlier it gets. With this most recent cut, I don't think I've ever seen it so curly before. I quite like it, but it takes me by surprise in the mirror as I'm not used to it.
I took these photos on Friday night, after a swim in the pool. I've been making it a habit of going there again to tread water and relax, something I used to do regularly when I first moved in to this building in 1998. I'd go down there and tread water for half an hour most nights around 9pm, when I would be the only person in the pool. I loved the way the underwater pool lights cast an eerie blue glow, and I'd float on my back and look at stars and the occasional plane go overhead. There's a fountain beside the pool, and the cascading water is soothing. What made me evacuate the pool a few minutes before I'd planned this particular evening was the appearance of the resident skunk! I see skunks around the garden and by the pool in a regular basis, usually a family, so I try and avoid them as best I can... you never know when you might get sprayed and have to dunk yourself in a bath of tomato juice!!!
