One of the first thoughts people have when they first meet me is typically something about my hair. It is not the longest hair in history, obviously, but it is longer than average.

I have never gotten my hair intentionally cut. There may have been a few times when I was little where I messed around with some scissors and accidentally cut some off. Currently, my hair sits a little above my knee when fully down. Due to the length of my hair I never where it down. My go-to hair style is low pigtail braids because it is easy and keeps my hair tame. However, with long hair comes many complications.

One of the biggest problems I run into is the fact that, the majority of the time, I sit on my hair. I will be in class and do something like putting my phone in my pocket and shift my position only to pull my hair because I am sitting on it. I have started to have the habit of lifting my hair when I sit, to avoid this problem.

I am sure a lot of people run into the next problem but I feel like it is more common for long-haired individuals. My hair is constantly getting stuck on something. For example, I was walking in the hallway on my way to class and I flipped my hair. The braid somehow got stuck on the zipper of a backpack next to me. I couldn’t get it unattached and it took a second for the person to realize what was happening. It was super embarrassing and I am always really conscious of my hair when in the crowded hallways.

Another issue is when I have to put my hair up. For marching band, everyone with long hair has to put their hair up in buns in the top of their heads, so that their hats will hide our hair. I always have to get up earlier than others in order to do my hair because it takes my mom and I around 15 minutes to put it up. Others can just flip their hair up in like five seconds. My hair also needs a lot of bobby-pins in order to stay up. There was a competition once time where I ended with over 20 in my hair. It is also extremely painful to put my hair up like that in the first place.

The obvious solution to these problems would be to just get a hair cut, as many people like to tell me. When I was little my mom never really wanted my hair to be cut. Since then I have never given it much thought. I am really used to my long hair and at this point in time I can not imagine cutting it.