Quest Post: Lana Purcell 

At the start of this year I took myself to Lily Jackson (my amazing hair dresser), sat down in the chair and before I could stop myself the words ‘cut it all off’ came pouring out of my mouth. I couldn’t believe it! I was certain I wanted it all off! I wanted to start afresh, shed the long locks and have a long bob. WHAT THE HELL! I thought, who was the person who had taken over my body? But whilst I sat there in silence and watched my locks cascade off my black cape and onto the floor I couldn’t help but feel a release, a weight lifted off my shoulders, a sense of empowerment.

All my life I have had hair down to my bottom, which my Mum loved. Me too, but I didn’t know any better! She never wanted me to cut it, so I didn’t! Then I fell into modeling and was never ‘allowed’ to cut my hair without permission from my agent. But despite work I wanted it all off. I felt my long locks represented a part of me that I was letting go of. That was holding me back, my past. I wanted to leave that all behind and kick on with 2011.

Lana has a very similar story that she is going to share with you all today.

A little bit about Lana: Lana is an uber-passionate, green smoothie drinking, raw foodie wanna-be, mother of two, wife of one and all round amazing kick ass human being. She is a fellow health coach and run's a holistic Mother's group in Melbourne. 

Take it away Lana! 

Today was awesome.  I woke up today, a normal day and as I do I am randomly drawn into directions or paths that I have no idea why or what for.  I found myself intuitively drawn to the local hair dresser and the words that came out of my mouth were very foreign for me. “Hi, do you have any appointments in the next few days I want to chop all my hair off”….. I was on auto pilot,  I had no idea what I was doing as sometimes I am guided to do things without thinking. “Yes, how is one pm for you” me “Yep sure”!

I returned home to explain to my husband that I was having my hair cut at one. Getting my hair cut in the past was a BIG no no. I don’t do it. I don’t cut. I trim, I get them to measure about 1/2 inch and cut and then I run. I’m not vain, I don’t style my hair in sweeping waves of golden curls, I shower let it dry and end up tying it up in a bun. Every now and then I find the time to straighten it half way down my waist while ignoring the children who are painting the wall with toothpaste…. So what has kept me from cutting my hair for so long? My own insecurities and my own beliefs that were imprinted on me when I was a child. We all have them.

With a fresh bob cut at 7yrs old and a 1 inch thick headband I was so excited to get to school and show off my new hair cut. What that resulted in was kids making fun of me as my ears stuck out and they called me dumbo. I won’t go into it. But never the less I was traumatised and swore that I would not EVER cut my hair short again. I was so serious that 22 years later I had NEVER cut my hair more than one inch at a time. Until today.

Every 2 years or so after turning 20 I would want to rock out and would go to cut my hair off and when sitting in the chair I would almost break down and would always change my mind. So what brought me to today?

After such a transformation in my thoughts, beliefs and mind in the last 5 years or so somehow today led to a REALLY important event for me. I believe that we are pushed intuitively to things and today was to let go of my old insecurities, my own ego, my own idea of what other people thought of me.

To other people I just got a hair cut. Big deal. To me it was so much more. Going in and sitting down in the chair I was calm, peaceful and even wondering, hmmmm what am I doing here. They offered me magazines, tea, coffee, wine lol anything to distract me from what was happening but I refused. I sat with myself, I sat with my memories and I sat observing the clouds out the window and all the busy people around me. I sat with me. . at times it was uncomfortable. At times I grabbed the book that I snatched off the shelf as I rushed to get there on time and read a page or so, it was Wayne Dyer’s “Change your thoughts Change your life” and the page I turned to was all about letting go of ego. HMMM ok yeah I get it. I am not my hair.

To be honest, today I was centred with myself and the lesson that I was learning…the hairdresser could have shaved my head or dyed my hair blue and I would have been happy.

Today was a lesson. It taught me to truly let go of my past and allow myself to BE. It allowed me to release all the Ideas that I had of myself and all the negative things that I experienced associated with my “look”. I felt free as I left the salon (which closed an hour before I left) even after hubby and the girls came with some shocked looks…. (miss 3 yr old thinks Rapunzel hair is the BOMB).

I feel like I can talk about publicly, can write about and accept all that has passed. I was bullied and harassed as I grew up and now I am free of it! Yes because I cut my hair. No…  because I have worked though some securities and today was just a public ritual that has allowed me to let go. I may look better with long hair, I don’t know…. I think I look better happy and free and released , what do you think?