So, after 10 years, two kids, and a slew of major house renovations, the biggest test of my marriage turned out to be something completely unforeseen. A haircut. Or, to be more precise, getting my husband to cut my hair.

We live in interesting times.**

Let me set the stage for you by mentioning that my last professional haircut was back in October 2019, at which time I got a long, asymmetrical pixie cut. I decided to forego my next appointment in December, mostly from laziness. Then I decided to skip past February, and wait until after a trip to Mexico to book my next haircut. By this point, I was raring to get it cut – and even experiment with colour! – but, of course, life had other plans. Skip ahead a few more months and we get to July; my hair was almost down to my shoulders and I had more or less resigned myself to growing it out until further notice. [See my disclaimer below regarding my reasons for not wanting to go to the hair salon. There were several personal considerations, mixed in with a healthy dose of laziness. Again.]

All fine and good. Except that what usually happens when I try to grow out my hair, well, happened again.

I remembered that I hate long hair on myself.

The thing is, in principle, I am ALL for long hair. I imagine myself with mermaid waves, Instagram-worthy tresses past my shoulder blades. “I will be one of those girls,” I whisper to myself. “Frolicking carefree in a lush meadow, with my beautiful long hair blowing gently in the breeze.” If I get really cocky, the words “Pre Raphaelite curls” might slip past my lips. Ah, but who are we kidding? I’ve never had the patience to do much more than the most rudimentary of curls on my straight-ish, fine, limp hair, and if I’ve yielded a curling wand, it’s always been with reluctance; nowadays, I have even less incentive than usual to try. The reality is that, almost every day since my hair grew long enough, it’s been up in a basic ponytail. Convenient in the summer but incredibly boring.

Now, my preferred hair length (on myself) is a short bob. A blunt, straight-across, grazing-the-chin bob. Preferably with equally blunt bangs. Like so:

For a visual reference, this was my hair situation as of early July:

As I struggled with my hair dilemma, an idea began to take shape.

What if … just what if … not saying definitely, but maybe … what if … my husband were to … you know … cut it?!

One day, I casually mentioned this idea to my dear spouse and he did not immediately recoil from it. Maybe he was feeling cocky; he’d been cutting our son’s hair during quarantine, with relative success. So, the idea took hold. Began to seem increasingly reasonable, in fact. My husband is an architect by training – surely, I reasoned, he can cut a straight line. No angles, no layers, nothing tricky to it.

Right?!

And this is how we found ourselves, one evening last week, in front of our bathroom mirror, contemplating our marriage’s greatest challenge: Operation Haircut.

Things didn’t get off to the best start. Almost immediately, my husband commented that he was surprised by how much hair I had. My hair is, indeed, fine but I have been repeatedly assured by my previous hair stylists that there is a LOT of it. I guess they weren’t lying. The “so much hair” bit became a constant refrain over the next hour and a half. At one point, my husband mentioned that he expected to have nightmares about “all this hair”. I am afraid my only retort was to assure him that the only nightmare would be the one on my head. We were not in the best of marital mindframes in that moment, I’m sure. But, we persevered – through sundry questionable stages (each worse than the previous) – until at last, we had a semblance of a straight line at more or less the correct length. I finally exhaled.

After a few more passes to touch up rough spots, not to mention my bangs (which I had butchered in an earlier attempt to cut them myself), we were ready to call it a night. I woke up with a few straggling hairs and a bit of unevenness on the underside at the back of my head, but honestly … not in bad shape, all things considered.

I mean, it’s not a professional cut, but it’s passable for the amount of time I spend in public settings these days. Check it out:

I’m not sure I would recommend this process (although it does make for an almost existential-level trust exercise if that’s something you’re interested in) but all is well that ends well. I have a cute haircut and, apparently, a new hair stylist. Luckily, he has not asked me to return the favour. There are limits to what even the most resilient of marriages can survive.

**I must caveat this post by saying that (a) hair salons are open in my city; (b) I don’t judge anyone who chooses to use their services at this time (assuming appropriate safety precautions are used by all involved). My choice not to go to my usual salon was the result of a number of personal circumstances, and it’s not my intent for it to be taken as a broad statement on the safety of visiting a hair salon at this stage of the pandemic. I believe such determinations are best left up to local public health officials (and I am specifically speaking to the Canadian experience, only).

Peacock Print

I’ll be honest and say that this isn’t the best quality dress I own. It’s basic polyester, which doesn’t breathe all that well. It’s not cut as loosely as I would like (though, I suuuuuuppose the dress cannot be blamed for my Quarantine Fluff *shrug*). It’s got an elastic waist which isn’t my favourite kind of detail – either give me a proper waist seam or none at all, none of this forever-adjustable-never-at-the-right-angle business.

But. That print.

That print is pretty magical. I love the peacock feather as a motif in clothing and/or accessories, even in a simplified version without all the beautiful colours. I just realized that my Rafael necklace kinda resembles a stylized peacock feather which is a nice (accidental) touch. Also accidental? The largely monochromatic colour palette – my latent matchy matchy instincts are pleased.

Wrap Style

I’m sure you’re bored of hearing this from me, but loose light layers is where it’s at for me, style-wise, this summer. Happy to add another piece to my layering repertoire with this simple wrap. I love the velvet floral applique on the front, which adds a pop of colour and visual interest. Paired with this rust-coloured jumpsuit, it’s a very pleasing match. Matchy, but not overly so. Cool and breezy too; I can wear this to work (from home) AND take my kids for a walk at lunch.

New Linen

Did I buy yet another linen potato sack dress? Of course I did. Can one have too many of them? Of course not. I had initially eyed this J. Jill number for my mom, as it’s a size Large, but once I got it home and tried it on (what? I was just curious to see how it fit) I realized that, umm, it was kind of perfect for yours truly. It definitely fits small – more like a medium than a large, for sure. I like the mixed up stripe pattern, and bleached colour palette (the stripes photograph grey for some reason, but are actually a lovely pale blue) which makes me think of Greece. Cliche? Maybe. But I’ll take an imaginary vacation any time I can, in lieu of the real thing.

Conceptual

Okay, maybe this is a bit too extra for my WFH situation, but sometimes I want to have a little fun. Adding a tulle layer to a short dress counts as fun, right? My kids might side-eye it, but I don’t care. Mommy needs to live too! [And, really, considering my kids have decided that pants are optional around the house now, who are they to judge my sartorial choices during quarantine??] Adding to the fun is a very maximalist necklace I created from odds and ends. I’m selling this piece (along with others I showed you earlier this week) but I like to personally test-run all of them first for … umm, science. Yeah, that’s it. Science!

I think I’ve mentioned before that my current favourite hobby is making costume jewelry. I have been making jewerly pieces (mostly beaded) by hand for many years, but my process has changed quite a bit in recent months as I have begun to focus more on the upcycling aspect – taking bits from old costume jewelry and using them along with my embroidery and beadwork to create new pieces. The creative aspect of upcycling is looking (thrifting) for jewelry that has potential to be re-imagined/re-purposed, and thinking of ways to do that in a mixed media format. It’s been quite a learning curve, but so much fun. It is sometimes frustrating to not be able to make exactly the pieces that I imagine in my head, but being constrained by the materials available – as I don’t have the means to do metal-work or create resin pieces, etc. – usually ends up spurring new ideas.

Here is a look at some pieces I have made and how they came to be.

Pansy Earrings

These earrings incorporate pieces from 2 different earrings, along with bits from an old Banana Republic necklace. I love the idea of asymmetrical earrings, and this design seemed to really lend itself to that.

Bib Necklace

This was a very simple upcycle in the sense that I used a plain cuff collar that I found at Goodwill, and adding connectors to the embroidered bib in order to attach it to the collar. I think the simple style of the collar works really well with the more maximalist vibe of the bib.

And same idea, with more beading (which was also upcycled from a thrifted necklace):

Metal Lace & Brocade Necklace

This bib was made from scraps of material from a thrifted J. Crew skirt (I am obsessed with this print!) and two thirds of a “metal lace” necklace. As with my other pieces, the bib is backed with felt so it’s lightweight but keeps its shape well.

The remaining third of the original necklace went into making this other bib:

Evil Eye Pendant

This is one of my favourite projects. This was made from an old Y-shaped pendant and an old earring, which serves as backing to the new pendant featuring a handmade “evil eye” (one of my fave motifs).

Rainbow Earrings

I struggle the most with earrings because they are more difficult to upcycle. Not all of them have hooks or holes that allow for extra or new pieces to be attached. Here, the posts are actually Kate Spade studs (I thrifted them without realizing they were branded, so that was a nice surprise) and I hooked in a connector through the gaps in the prong setting in order to attach the embroidery part. The bottom dangly bits came from a thrifted necklace, and added some extra movement. I love me a dramatic earring!

And speaking of dramatic earrings – these were made from another pair of studs plus some resin pieces from a thrifted necklace:

Butterfly Bib Necklace

As soon as I saw this large metal butterfly piece, I knew it had potential. I ended up painting and varnishing it, then attaching it to a felt-backer brocade bib (similar to the above). I “reconstructed” the body from beads, but otherwise kept the embellishments minimal to let the metal and fabric take centre stage.