There’s a non-trivial chance that my Tolari have ridiculously long hair because I’ve been letting my own hair grow for the last… oh… third of my life, or something like that. Most folks didn’t realize just how long it was because I seldom went out without twisting it up into a clip. But it was long. Very long. Until last year, it was very very long — halfway down my thighs — but my neck had begun to really hurt, and I had it cut to just about level with the bottom of my shoulder blades.

Since my hair grows rather quickly, it was already down past my waist last week when I marched into a beauty school in West Mifflin and asked them to induct me into the League of Middle-Aged Women With Short Hair.

At first, they didn’t seem to believe me. Then they got excited, and even used someone’s cellphone camera to video the process of chopping off my long ponytail.

Boy, does my neck feel better. But the habits of years are hard to break, and I still try to flip it out of the way while engaged in any number of mundane activities, from brushing my teeth to rolling over in bed.

Curiously enough, I finally caved into the pressure (from those aware of just how much pain I was putting up with for the sake of my hair) while getting ready to write about Tolari outcastes in Farryn’s War. And that’s all I can say, because <alexkingston>spoilers!</alexkingston>, but I think that thinking deeply about the outcastes and their short hair helped me say good-bye to my beautiful long tresses.

The ponytail is going to Locks of Love. Which donation, by the way, I recommend to anyone deciding to go from Very Long to Very Short.

How short is it? This short: