Turn your head and coif.

OK folks, I have a bunch of half-posts bouncing around my brain. Until I finish them or they dissolve into the mists of time, you'll have to be satisfied by a hair post. Inspired by my age-mates, Lori and Jennifer, who did their own great hair posts.

I have had my current hairstyle for nearly 15 years, although now I have long layers whereas before it had been all one length just below my shoulders. I did have a brief short-hair experiment in Bulgaria in 2001, but I grew it out since I found shorter hair to require more product and styling than I was willing to deal with. I rarely even blow it dry.

My hair has always been straight, but since having Shmooie, the hair from my ears down has come in wavy, whereas the top has stayed stick straight. Wonder what's in store for me post-partum Polly. (Photo above is from January. I'm due for my twice-yearly haircut.)

Anyway, here we go. I think these must be first, second, and third grade, although the ponytail one is marked 2nd.

With the option for an occasional bun or braid. (I didn't ask my family members' permission, but the photos tell hair side-stories of their own.)

Internet, are you ready for 1980s awkward age? Here ya go.

Yes of course that's Garfield shirt.

And then I ditched the glasses but started getting perms.

Gah. I can still conjure up the stench of perm solution if I think about it. I threw this one in because my siblings look so cute. (Including Michi, exchange sister from Austria who lived with my family my senior year of high school. That's a chocolate pizza she's holding.)

Prom theme song: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." Not even Bo Peep in her size-too-small borrowed dress. (Sorry Brian, I guess I should have asked your permission to post, too. And I'm sorry for making you wear a pink cummerbund.)

Onto the perm and winged temples-bangs combo. Always a classic.

All right, I'm tired and need to go to bed, so the college and post-college years are going to have to have their own post. So I leave you with this hott photo of me on the mighty Pinto against a lovely North Dakota backdrop. I learned how to drive stick with the Pinto. Everything else has seemed easy since then.

Comments

[sgazzetti]

It's alarming how much the you in the Garfield shirt photo looks like the me in so many photos which have thankfully since been lost in the mists of time. Just sub "Star Wars" for "Garfield" and I could be looking in a time-warp/mirror mashup. Eerie.

[Niki]

You are an incredibly brave woman. I don't think you could pay me to post a bunch of my goofy hair pictures from development - and boy there are quite a few. In fact my current hair is a fright - I must call and make an appt.

[Lori]

I LOVE the title of this post. And that photo of the three of you sitting on the steps? I think I've got one just like it somewhere, only I'm the girl in the middle.

[Swistle]

This is one of the most fun post ideas ever. And you and I have lived parallel hair lives, except yours is a prettier color and I did the "spiral perm with bagel bangs" in the late '80s instead of the shorter feathered cut. But we both had the winged temples, the ponytails, the bangs, etc.

[Pam]

I like the sweet ponytail braids a lot, the shot of you three on the picnic table, but Norma Jean, the Pinto drape with big blue-sky backdrop is a hot-rod lover's dream!

[Xdm]

You are a brave, brave woman for posting these. I have shied away after this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996591168@N01/226416963

[Patrick]

Too funny. Like the rings of a tree, your hairstyles clearly demarcate the different eras of your life. Fortunately I didn't own a camera throughout college so my Stray Cats look lives on only in lore.

[Brian]

No worries! I didn't initially recognize myself in that prom pic, the remants of my own ill-fated perm experiment still visible. And yeah, I've never looked good in a white tux...