5 Short Hair Styles to Try this Spring

Short hair can be a huge pain. It can also be really, incredibly cute. 

I have followed the pattern (over and over again) of getting a pixie cut, growing it out, and then cutting it again... right when I'm done with the awkward growing out phase. And the awkward growing out phase is the worst. 

For this post, I wanted to share some short hair styles for spring. But I wanted to focus on that particular length of hair that is neither pixie length short nor long enough for a ponytail, or bun, or anything. It's that Super Awkward Length that everyone who has ever grown out a pixie cut remembers with horror. You have a little length. You have a little room to work. But it's still... not... enough. 

These hair styles are for you, fellow awkward hair length girls! 

1. Try this flatiron trick for waves. 

When in doubt, give your hair some texture. (If you already have curly hair, you're good.) Almost everyone looks good with a textured bob or lob. I love this tutorial from the Beauty Department on the flatiron trick, which I have only recently mastered. 

2. Try some cute braids. 

Short hair can get really annoying because it's always in your face. I love using braids to get it out of my eyes. This tutorial is pretty easy and has clear instructions (for the braiding challenged... like me). 

3. Do a half top knot. 

Thank god the 90s are back in style and we can say things like "half top knot" without getting a look of absolute disgust in return. I love wearing my hair in half ponytails, but it can get a little boring day after day after day. A half top knot, with a little fun texture, is a blessing. 

4. Try a short hair chignon. 

I love this tutorial because 1) it's a video! and 2) it is actually pretty easy. I did it myself! The idea of getting short hair into a chignon sounds daunting, but it's actually very easy. 

5. Try milkmaid braids. 

Listen: I cannot braid to save my life. I would need assistance for this one. But if you are better at braiding than me, give it a whirl! I love the look of milkmaid braids and this, like a chignon or the first braiding tutorial, can get your hair out of your face and eyes, while still looking cute. Plus, during the summer, you can get your hair off of your neck. 

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I Cut All My Hair Off (Again)

My anxiety has two settings: I don't care (at all, not even a little bit) or I can't stop thinking about it. 

Strangely enough, one of the things that I don't care about at all is labor and delivery. I can't be bothered to think about it. I know it's going to happy. I know I'm supposed to be scared that it will hurt or be awful or whatever. I know those things. But I just cannot care. 

Instead, the thing I compulsively worried about was this: what am I going to do with my hair when I'm in labor?? 

This is a truly ridiculous thing to worry about when it comes to having a baby, but it's what my brain decided to fixate on. Would I remember hair ties? If I told Danny to buy me hair ties, what kind of atrocities would I end up with (rubber bands? the ones with the metal clasps??)? I'm a hair twirler too, especially when I'm anxious, tired, or in pain. In labor, I knew I'd be tearing my hair out of a ponytail every few minutes, only to put it back in the ponytail, and repeat. 

The solution was obvious. It was staring me right in the face: I needed to cut my hair off. 

Once upon a time, I was just a college hipster living in Idaho. 

For having had a pixie cut for so long, I've become strangely attached to long hair. My long(er) hair has become part of my identity, even though I mostly just put it in a bun most of the time. Having gained weight in the last few years, and gaining more since getting pregnant, I felt afraid that if I cut my hair, it would betray the changes my body had gone through. I was really, really scared that I wouldn't look as cute as I used to with short hair and that people would clue in to the fact that I had gotten, well, considerably larger than I used to be. 

My long hair was a security blanket: I used it to hide, to hide the reality of what I look like and what I feel I look like. Even though I knew I look really good with short hair, I was terrified that this time, I wouldn't. 

However, as time passed, it got harder and harder for me to do my hair every day. I knew I looked disheveled. I knew I looked like a mess. I knew I looked like I'd just rolled out of bed (in many instances, I had). Something had to be done. Something drastic. 

At exactly 35 weeks (last Friday), I cut all my hair off. 

Ok, maybe not all of it: most of it. 

And you know what? 

I didn't look awful. I did have a terrifying moment, post-haircut, where I walked into Target and saw my reflection in the sliding glass doors: do I look like a tick?????!!! You know, big body, little head? I became paranoid, rushed through Target, and drove home... only for Danny to tell me that I looked amazing and, in his words, "more put together." 

Which, really, was the goal. 

My fears were unfounded. I'd been terrified that, without my long hair, my much fuller face and burgeoning double chin would be revealed. However, I've found with a pixie cut, those things are actually less obvious: instead, people focus on my eyes or my features or, best of all, my belly.