Hairography Vol. 1

I actually have boring hair story even since. It has been just recently that I started trying crazy things to my hair. Probably given that I am employed now and have money to do such (but I’m still broke af). I get different reactions from people everytime they see my hairstyle change but I don’t really care as long as I think it looks good. That’s probably what I learned when I started to experiment with my hair, what they think don’t matter because you are doing it for yourself.

The Evolution of Hair

The 'Bao' Cut

I see pictures of me sporting a short “bao” cut when I was in little. I think it looked cute though and was easy to maintain since we had a family business back then and my parents were busy and I might have been too little and too reckless to even care about my hair.

Chuvachuchu Days

When I started attending school, my hair started to grow longer as well. My mom would always put burloloys (colorful accessories) on my hair, that time I remember Jolina Magdangal was a trend and and my favorite hair accessory would be the springy-winged butterfly clip. I had a beautiful long black mane back then. “Virgin hair” as they would call it, never touched by any hair treatment, just naturally straight. My best friend (who was my cousin too) back then had long hair too, and she was mainly my inspiration for having that hairstyle, hers was longer and silkier than mine was, but I loved it nonetheless.

It was when I was in 6^th Grade that I decided that straight hair was boring and I want to have a haircut. “Shaggy” haircut was considered stylish back then and I thought that doing it on my hair would be cool but that was one of the worst decisions that I made in my life. After that haircut, my hair dried up, it wasn’t as silky smooth as it was back then and my straight hair became wavy and frizzy.

Highschool Graduation Day

 That was when my inferiority complex started. Ugly hair + acne breakout = Nerdy-Ugly Highschooler. Throughout High School, my hair wasn’t much of an issue for me, that was probably because I was more concerned of my acne and my grades back then (my acne breakout is the memory I hated looking back to the most during that period of my life. But that’s another story to tell for some other day).

Before I graduated, I decided to have my hair straightened, mainly because almost all of my classmates were doing it and somehow it felt like doing it would somehow make me feel I belong. I never regretted it though, ‘cause somehow it did make me look a bit more human lol.

Up until now though whenever my mom remember that I did that treatment, she would always insist that ‘rebonding’ my hair had fried it, but that was the exact reason why I needed to have my hair treated and straightened, because my hair is dry and frizzy.

She Bangs

It was late 2011 I banged the bangs (lol). I started going to Cosplay events that time and I found bangs the closest to anime style I could get. I’m not sure why I didn’t have much photos of me having bangs (or maybe I have disposed them all?) but having bangs would be one of my favorite hairstyles. When the bangs grew longer, I didn’t have them trimmed again because they were hard to maintain and my skin got easily irritated and it caused more acne breakouts on my forehead. So no matter how much I wanted them, I need to let them go. (If you really love them, let them go. Lol.)

By March 2012, my hair was about the length of my butt and I was getting bored of having straight hair—again—and had my hair curled. It looked nice for at least 2 months, but since I had dry hair and hair conditioner wasn’t part of my daily hair care routine (Yeah, I know, I suck Lol) I eventually looked like a witch with it. At times I think my hair loves me and I looked gorgeous with it, but mostly it didn’t so I always had it tied on a ponytail. I let my hair rest for more than a year and it remained long and curly.

Early 2014

August 2014

I finally decided to have my curls cut late August of 2014. I wanted to remove the dry part of my hair but I was scared to have it cut too short so I had it cut to my shoulders instead. Before I graduated from my Bachelor’s degree I had my haired dyed red. Of course I wanted a more bizarre color like blue or pink but I don’t think I’ll be able to get a teaching position having wild-colored hair so instead, I stuck to a (little) subtle shade of red and again, my hair got fried.

Last look before I got it fried with curls.

2015 was one of the hardest years that I have been through and was probably the hardest for my hair as well. I was stuck in a job where my heart wasn’t into, I lost my heart to someone who left it broken, and lost connections to people who should have been there when I was mending it. I still believe that having a new hairstyle was like being a new me.

Curls 2015

I was still scared of cutting my hair too short, and I thought it would be too obvious that I was going through something that time and I didn’t want people to know about it, so instead of getting a haircut, I had it curled.

2015

I never learned. That was the worst treatment my hair had to go through. It got so fried it looked synthetic—a murdered-Class-A-wig synthetic. I tried to maintain it, but conditioner didn’t make it any better, it felt greasy and it was still dry as fudge. Finally by the end of the year I decided to chop my hair short.

It was after going to Church one day that I decided to have my hair cut. That time I felt scared, scared to cut my hair too short and look stupid with short hair, scared of moving on from someone I still believe will come back. But I realized I needed to do it for myself, I needed to keep moving forward.

Yearbook Picture as a Teacher

The first time I looked at myself in the mirror with my hair chopped off, I felt brave and liberated. That first step wasn’t that scary, I thought, and that was when Meloerise V2.0 was born. Seeing strands of my curly hair on the floor made me feel as though my burdens were cut off as well.

Besides, I rocked the short-haired chic look so much I knew my friends would agree (c’mon guys, I know you would).

2016 is the wild year of hair dyeing for me. I left my stressful work for a world that was new to me. A world where I wouldn’t be restrained on how I should act, how I should dress or how I should style my hair. So I did what I have always wanted to do, dye my hair.

Orangey

Orangey 2

Blue Hair

Greenish Shade

Kinda Ash Brown

I was aiming for a light blue hair and to achieve that I needed to bleach my hair. I knew my hair would become brittle and damaged due to bleaching, but that didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted. Unfortunately I picked the wrong shade of blue, I got a dark blue shade which eventually faded to green then somewhat ash brown. I still think it looked cool though.

September 2016

When my birth month came I wanted to be blonde again, but since I had my hair dyed a dark color, the blonde hair dye did not work and it resulted to a brown shade. My hair became softer and manageable during that period. Probably because that time I discovered the amazing powers of hair conditioner.

This year my hair grew long again and the hair color had faded. By the end of March I felt that I needed a change in my life after yet again another heartbreak. I had my hair bleached and guess what?

I was classy, sassy and a little bad assy.

I wanted a new look for my birthday, and I was starting to get tired of the long blonde hair. So I decided to get another haircut. I showed the hairstylist this picture but I didn’t know why my hair became this short. I don’t even have words.

September 2017

The next month I saw this shorter boyish haircut and thought it would be nice, my friend Aira dared me to go for it as well so I did. I loved how it turned out. My friends and workmates often referred to me as pogi (handsome) and tricycle drivers would call me boy. I didn’t mind. It looked cool. Lol.

October 2017

The month after I wanted it shorter.

If I had a peso for every time people would ask me why I had my hair cut, I would have a hundred and for every time I was asked if I was planning to shave my head bald I would have fifty. I would just laugh it off and say I am actually planning to.

I once told my friend Tony that it would be nice to try to have an undercut which she said she would love to have but she can’t. So I thought, why not try it? I wanted to see how far and how wild I could go with my hair. No one was stopping me (except for my Kuya (older brother) he was actually telling my mom to stop me but my mom knew no one could stop me anyway so she just let me be) so I entered that salon with a firm decision—I would have an undercut.

November 2017

I stepped out of that salon a new (man lol) person. Most of the friends were shocked about it but most of them liked how it turned out too. A lot of them thought it was cool and a lot commented that they wanted to try it but they can’t because of their professions or some because of what people would think if they did it.

Two Sides

I didn’t care about negative comments. I liked how it looked like and I somehow felt satisfied that I was able to do something I never thought I would. But to be honest, this is probably the farthest I could go with my hair. I’m actually thinking of having my head shaved but that’s out of the list because I’m sure my mom would definitely kill me by then. Lol.

Dyeing my hair pastel pink is still something I want but something I need to think about, but since I do most of my hair transformations through a spur-of-the-moment decision, you might just see me one day with pink hair. I don’t know.

Writing this Hairography post had made me miss my long hair. So I am thinking of growing my hair again. As for now, I’ll just stay cool with my undercut.

This post is actually inspired by Tony’s own Hairography post. Check it on her blog here.

So how about you? What’s your hair story?