Thoughts & musings

I'm saddened and disturbed by what's been going on here and I'd just like to share my thoughts without adding them to a specific thread so here goes. I'm adding to my thoughts a good bit of my own personal hair history that might help people to understand where I'm coming from.First off I don't find discussion of short/buzzed/shaved hair on women in any way objectionable. However I am disturbed by some of what's going on on this board. I think that women should wear their hair as they feel appropriate, long or short. What I really like about this board is that it really has an emphasis on healthy hair. There's not a lot of posts about long haired celebrities or hair admirerers or fetishists, no meetups or melodramas... just a group of people who are pretty caring and passionate about healthy (often long) hair. There's a lot of good tips that go up here and I love reading Karen's articles. Lately a lot of that seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of posts advocating certain cuts or styles, and the outraged reactions to that advocacy. That's sad.As for me, I've had my hair many lengths. When I was a child it was shoulder length, but very damaged and completely unmanageable. When I was a freshman in college I had it shaved for a bit... I got a lot of dates, however I also got bored with it FAST. When your hair is short you have a very limited range of styling options, and I like change Since my hair was shaved I've been trying to grow it long (I've had a couple nightmare cuts along the way... but it's making good progress now). I used to think that long hair was an impossiblity for me because my hair was too coarse and unruly (and I want long beautiful hair, not long nasty hair). I always thought long hair was beautiful, but despaired that mine would never look good. Proper care has shown me that that's not the case... but that was something I had to learn. That's a big part of the reason that I am fanatical about taking excellent care of my hair, because I don't have the kind of hair that bears wear and tear well.People have a lifetime experience with their hair... whether you like it or not it symbolizes a lot. For someone who has grown their hair out you can see the patience, perserverence and fortitude it took. Someone with very short may be trying to say to the world "Hey, look at me... I'm ready to move on, adapt, do something new!" Neither of these things is an invalid statement to make, and both lengths can be beautiful depending on the person and the image they're trying to portray. However I think these aspects of personality show through on this board and that may be contributing to the tension.And a few closing notes:To Alice: Please do not post inline picture links. Regarless of what you're saying I for one find it annoying.And to whomever is impersonating Karen: You suck and I have nothing more mature to say to you.-jennifer