The True Story of Why I Care about Hair

If you know me, you know I enjoy the art of hair. Some call it an obsession. I call it a passion. But where did that come from? Well, it all started in 4th grade...

Warning: this post is just for pure autobiographical fun. If you’re not here for fun then you’ll likely be annoyed by this, so just chalk it up as “this one ain’t for you,” and feel free to skip it. We’ll get back to more serious/scholastic matters soon enough. 😘

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I learned the power of good-hair to command a room and demand attention when I was in the fourth grade.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you’ve been around here (or my Instagram) for any amount of time, then surely this won’t surprise you to hear: I like hair. 😬

The photographer snapped this while I was checking my hair between shots. Lol.

Call me names if you must (so vain!).

Criticize my interest in such surface level matters (superficial!).

I don’t mind. I accept this part of me.

No, actually, I like this part of me.

(I’ve also come a long way over the years, fwiw. I used to be way more obsessive about my hair. Not wanting anyone to touch it. Not going out in public if it didn’t look just right. Believe me, I’m not that cray cray any more).

But yeah, I like hair.

Hair styles. Hair cuts. Hair texture and color and shape and feel.

My own hair. Other people’s hair.

In fact, it’s always the first thing I notice in someone. I almost never remember people’s eye colors (true story… I’ve had friends, good friends I’ve known for years, and if you ask me what color their eyes are, I probably won’t know), but I can sure as heck describe their hair to you. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The thing is, even though I learned about the power of having-good-hair when I was nine years old, it wasn’t until I turned 30 that I finally found my groove.

Disclosure: I had to go through some stages, y’all. Here’s a handful of looks I tried out during my 20’s. 🫣

Blonde tips, flat-irons, faux-hawks, soul patches, amish beards, pretend rocker. I was trying.

But when I turned 30, while living in San Diego, I got a real hair cut from an actual stylist (instead of the usual Sport Clips or whatever), and suddenly it all made sense to me.

My first real haircut upon turning 30

And I’ve been more or less styling it like that for the past 12 years—even learning how to cut my own hair around that same time.

So I’ve been cutting and styling my own hair for over a decade now, and it’s just a ton of fun (not to mention saves a ton of money!).

But where did this passion come from, you might ask? (Okay, I’m not sure anyone’s actually asking that)

Well… to understand this quest of mine for the perfect hair…

to grasp why I spend so much time styling it,

watching YouTube videos about men’s hair,

and demo’ing more products than I care to tell you…

We need to go back to fourth grade.

We need to go back to Julie Brandymeyer (last name changed, to protect her privacy).

Julie had a dual dimpled smile, lightly freckled cheeks, and was a nimble striker on the four-square court.

She was also my first crush.