Briana M Ramirez

Learning a lesson is always harsh in reality but rewarding in life, as cliche as that sounds. Heartbreak is always the most tragic. Even as teenagers, it feels like the end of the world. As you get older, the feeling of heartbreak seems to just get worse. I, myself, am currently reeling from a break up and after a year it still seems to resonate through me.. like the remnants of Chernobyl. I try and look back at all the bad we had ever done to each other to reassure myself that this was for the best. What is the most depressing is that even the bad still feel like the parts I miss most as opposed to not having him at all. It sounds high school and illogical, doesn’t it? Trust me, I know. Ten years doesn’t wear thin on the heart, that’s for sure. It’s even funny when I think a hair cut will solve all my problems. Like becoming Ashley Judd from a 90’s Rom Com and feeling empowered by chopping my locks as to declare “A New Beginning”. How interesting is that concept? You see it in alot of Entertainment. Zuko, in Avatar: the Last Airbender; Sakura in Naruto; Korra from The Legend of Korra(The Avatar franchise is worth the double honorable mention); and last but not least, my favorite feministic female, Mulan. All noted characters somehow make some sort of life altering shift at the stroke of their dagger and the falling of their hair. And I say that because it is very interesting, as the last strand of their hair falls to the ground, so does the part of who they were. Native Americans believed that their hair was an extension of their conciousness. Like everything that flows through you and make you who you are is also flowing out of your brain… through your skull and through your hair. Which is why most of them never cut their hair, to retain that spiritual and emotional connection to their spirit/soul. But being  weak willed, depressed, and harboring nothing but pain in one’s soul is not something that should be held onto. So, for shits and giggles, I indulged an article I read about “how cutting one’s hair, helps during a break up”. Initially, my first thought was “Will this “”miraculously”” give me my groove back” “Will I let go of my Billy Zabka and finally find my Ralph Macchio?” “What magic is there in actually cutting one’s hair”.. So.. I did it. It was much more than I gave the idea credit for. Maybe it is a placebo.. Maybe I did cut off the old and everything that was tying me to who I was and weighing me down. I can’t say for sure which was which. I know for certainty that I felt, undoubtedly, liberated. I won’t lie, I still find myself thinking about him and reminiscing on what we could’ve been, but it is less painful now. We as humans need to evolve, it is in our nature. I think the first step in doing so, is getting a haircut.