I suspect this will be more musings out loud than questions. But I felt a strong resonance with Angie's blog post today on pushing oneself toward style transformation. As for clothes, incidentally, I think (let's say I was working with Angie) that I would be game for anything she recommended, unless I had a truly adverse reaction to it. But I feel really up to experimenting and ready for it, and only lack a clue as to which direction to move in (for a 180 degree transformation--which is why I'd be theoretically hiring a gifted stylist to do that job for me!). The only thing that would also really stop me is physical comfort--not being willing to don high heels, because I'm clumsy and can't safely wear them and enjoy myself in that type of shoe.

Other than that, dress me up any way you want and I'll give it an open mind.

Now on to the haircut, which I also have come to accept probably has more impact on one's image than anything else. It's also touchy for me.

I've always had recalcitrant, frizzy, kinky, unmanageable and frankly very unattractive hair. I was an adolescent in the late '70s and basically if you couldn't do the Farrah Fawcett thing, you were a loser. So that was tough. I fried my hair and it did not cooperate in any way. (It wouldn't have looked good curly and left to its own devices either--it was really just lank and frizzy, and grew out like a triangle, close to the head on top and ballooning out at the bottom. Product, as far as I knew, was not really around then, and if it was, I was too ignorant and teenage-poor to consider it.) I could never grow my hair more than down to my shoulders and even then it was so poufy and awful looking. Most of my life, and I mean up to this past year or so, I wore it either very short or close-clipped to my head and maybe a little past my jawline.

Anyway that's the background on my hair woes. This past 1.5 years or so, maybe it's a hormonal thing but all of a sudden my hair texture has softened quite a bit and it's begun to grow long (for me), with some nice, relaxed curls. The texture is still very wiry, but it looks and behaves a lot better.

After 40-plus years, it's a shock to look in a mirror from the side and see hair cascading way past my shoulders. And to be able to grab it into a long ponytail. And to see loose ringlets draping down over my clavicle. I really like it.

One problem is that the texture on top of my head is still very coarse, the hair splits like mad up there and it's not growing well. So I do look like I have a mullet (self-perception). Because the hair is thick, dark and wavy, it may not be so obvious to others, especially in pics, but I'm sensitive about it and the discrepancy in hair length is a problem.

Anyhow, with today's blog post on hair as well as my current obsession with recreating my style and image, it's a given that I need to do something with my hair. Something. I am not sure what, or even whether I should give free rein to my stylist.

Most of you talking about hair transformation have mentioned going from long(er) to very short. For me, though no one on the street would know, the long hair is really the radical look for me.

Except it doesn't look particularly radical, and I do need some sort of a change to look more polished, sleek, etc. But I don't want to go short again. But I also realize I'm having more of an emotional than logical feeling about this. Maybe there'd be a short cut that would look perfect for me.

And the way my hair is now, I'm not sure it will be best for the direction I want to go in stylistically in terms of clothing. Mod, sleek, slightly edgy (though I also like romantic, boho, RATE, just to confuse things).

Just confused here!

My stylist is good (I'm also thinking about slightly lightening the color), and yet I am not even sure how well she'd respond to my not knowing exactly what I want. She's quite happy not to chop my hair off at all (even when I've wanted something more dramatic) and she does a great job with all my issues and uneven lengths. Her specialty is, actually, "retro haircuts" (rockabilly, punk, 50's, etc), but she will not force her vision on me.

Anyway, I have no idea what to do or if I should just keep getting splits and unevenness trimmed and let the hair grow and flow and enjoy it this way.

If it weren't for the message of today's post, and all of my overall resolutions for the new year, I would still be pondering all of this, but not as urgently.

Sorry for the ramblings......