Angie’s blog post today is timely, as I’ve been thinking about how to move forward with my hairstyle in the era of coronavirus quarantine. I would have had a hair appointment on Friday, and without any idea of when we will be able to avail ourselves of these services again, I’m taking the delay as a chance to think about the future.

I’m thinking of letting my asymmetrical cut grow out — letting the short side over my left ear gradually catch up to the other layers. It will likely be awkward, but the good thing is I can simply arrange my part differently to hide it.

I’m taking advantage of (mostly) no-one seeing me to use heat styling less and save the ends of my color-processed hair from more damage. It goes wavy/curly and tends to frizz this way, so I may experiment with ways of eliminating frizz while embracing its natural texture. I do tend to blow dry the bangs a little bit just so they don’t do weird little flips and bends, and let the rest do it’s thing. I let the part fall where it may. I trimmed my bangs just a little last week so they would not fall in my eyes (I prefer them just touching my eyebrows). My husband actually noticed the bang trim and says that’s all I needed. He says he likes my hair curly too, which is nice.

The color is problematic. I have about 3/4” of roots grown out, and plenty of grey is apparent. Oh well. I’ll see how long I can tolerate it. And my blue streaks will be grown out to the point where any future hair cut will eliminate them, and I’ll need to have sections bleached out again if I want to add fashion color — I’ve become pretty attached to my blue/teal/silver streaks, so we’ll see what happens with those.

For the moment, I’m kind of working my version of a wavy shag with bangs, and i think it’s probably a decent strategy. It works with the texture of my hair, and it’s kind of intentionally messy so it hides some of the awkwardness of growing out layers. I may try carefully trimming some layers in the future if we get into summer and still can’t go to the salon. If I screw it up, hey, it’s summer — I’ll just wear a ponytail or a hat!

Here’s my Pinterest board with wavy shag styles: https://pin.it/61FqGNX I kind of wish there were more good examples of over-50 women or women with natural grey hair in these styles, but when you search for over 50 shag cuts, the examples tend to be dated, over-styled looks that are the total opposite of what I want. I don’t mind looking like the aging rocker I am, but I’d like the effect to be more effortless.

These photos are similar to where I am now, but my hair has a little more curl than this. I also want to watch that my bangs don’t look too heavy — keeping them a little wispier or a little shorter helps keep my small face from looking too closed-in.

How are you rethinking your hair, moving forward?

ETA: a photo just to show current state of my hair, as far as texture and color. This is after washing it last night and letting it completely air dry with no product or styling — haven’t touched it this morning. Photo purposely overexposed to show the texture and natural wave. It was actually curlier last night but sleeping on it makes the waves settle down quite a bit.