The Shear, Hilarious Joy of Making Mistakes

In the spring of 2020, lockdown descended upon Chicago. A beautiful April unfolded outside, with an eery quiet as traffic died down and birds were easier to hear.

In isolation, I determined to cut my hair on my own to send in for an overdue hair tissue mineral analysis. My managerial parts wanted to cut as close to the scalp as I could, so it would be ‘as accurate as possible!’

I spent a long time brushing, sectioning, and clipping up the hair on the back of my head. I already had my fancy, HTMA-only scissors ready. I parsed and parsed my hair until I had identified just the right area. Then I started cutting, close— as close to the scalp as I could get—

Suddenly I stopped. Something felt ‘off.’ I saw the hair on the floor. WHOAH Nelly! I’d sheared off about a four by two inch section of hair on the back of my head! WAY too much hair.

Then I started laughing. Oh my god I had a bald spot! Luckily all my sectioning and pinning and clipping prior to the cut meant the bald spot was underneath the clipped-up hair, so as long as I brushed my hair right, no one could see it.

Reaching for “perfect,” for “accurate,” my managers over-reached, over-cut, and basically scalped me. Happily my managers are not particularly invested in how other people perceive me, and my firefighters only care about very specific things (like acne, which they can NOT abide). So without protectors wrapped up in using how I appear as a strong defense, I had room to laugh. And laugh some more.

When I look at that picture I laugh so hard!

I appreciate the freedom to laugh at myself. To make mistakes. To screw up. To sit on the floor with my hair clipped up in the beginning of a global pandemic, trying to cut my hair myself, and failing miserably.

I wasn’t aiming for a “#coronacut,” but I definitely got one.

Here’s to the joy of making mistakes. To this one, and all the ones to come!