when quarantine first started and everyone was doing things to their hair, i decided i wanted bangs. well, i had already wanted them. but, i hadn’t had a chance to go to a hairstylist and i decided this was the perfect time to do it myself.
there was only one thing stopping me from taking my pair of white metal scissors to the front strands of my hair: my mom. i begged and begged, repeatedly mentioning this was the perfect time. she said no. after that, i asked with increased frequency that month, and she declared that if i did it, she would take my phone away.
i had completely given up. i spent hours of my time watching videos of people messing up their hair, and i wished i could do the same. since i couldn’t, i just settled for dying my hair teal.
as the months went by, i pushed my desire to cut my hair to the back of my mind. i still wanted bangs, but not as much as before. i stopped thinking about it.
but then, one random day in july that was just like any other i began to wish for bangs again. hesitantly, i tiptoed down the stairs, on my way to talk to my mother, bracing myself for a no. i didn’t feel like getting my phone taken away anytime soon. i was shocked when she said yes.
my mom’s list of conditions included
1: I had to cut my hair after eid, because she was pretty sure it would look bad in pictures.
and with that vote of confidence, i eagerly awaited the day after eid.
so from that day on, i adopted a new routine, where every single night i would spend hours watching videos of girls cutting bangs. examining those videos, i would practice sectioning my hair for bangs. at times, it felt kind of obsessive, but i was really excited.
as the day i would chop my hair off approached, i started to feel a bit more nervous. what if it turned out terrible? what if i had to attend my google meet classes with my newly botched hair? i casually asked my mom a second time if i could cut bangs, just to make sure she hadn’t changed her mind, and she continued to agree. i was kind of bewildered when i noticed that despite being totally against it before, my mom seemed kind of excited, or at least supportive for what i was about to do for my hair. ultimately, after probably a few seconds of consideration, i didn’t back out.
fun fact: cutting my own hair is something that’s on my bucket list. more specifically, cutting bangs. my mom actually wanted to do it, but i refused. not only was it something i had to cross off my list, but i felt like she wouldn’t do it exactly how i want it.
finally, on the night after eid, after watching probably every bang-cutting video to exist on the internet, i was ready.
i washed my hair, blow-dried the part i planned to cut, and picked up the scissors. my hands were shaking – with fear or excitement, i wasn’t sure. maybe a bit of both.
i decided to let my sister and cousin watch me.
but then they kept screaming and being annoying, so i kicked them out.
finally, i forwarded through one last tutorial of how to cut bangs, before i turned on my phone camera to film myself cutting my hair.
then, i cut it.
my hair fell onto the counter as i leaned forward to make sure it didn’t get all over the rug. i sliced and chopped and cut at my hair, until finally, it was to my eyes.
after curling it, i decided it looked weird. i definitely didn’t regret it, but i looked really strange. that was probably mostly because the rest of my hair was still wet.
anyways, so now i have bangs! i would absolutely say it was worth the wait, because i do really like them. they definitely make my face and hair feel more interesting. that might just be because i’m not completely used to them, though.
if you wanna cut bangs, or do anything to your hair in general, i 100% recommend you do it. even if it looks bad, at least you can say you did it instead of spending forever wondering if you should. but most of the time, if you thought it over for as long as i did, it’ll probably look great! so if you plan on cutting or dying your hair, good luck!
