I have been even more terrible than usual at updating... but I have excuses! Sort of. Kinda.

I went to Pax East in Boston, a gaming convention hosted by Penny Arcade . This was my second year going and it was a super fun nerdy weekend. I even shaved my hair into a mohawk. Long story short, there was a game promotion for Far Cry 3 where you get the game for free if you shave your hair into a mohawk to look like Vos (I'm guessing he's the main character, a terribly ugly guy IMO). Well, I saw it as an opportunity to get a free haircut - I was going to cut my hair short anyway, so what the hell right? Well, it didn't really come free. I got interviewed by this horrible interviewer who didn't know how to operate a mic, it was incredibly awkward. To be fair, I was being honest about not knowing anything about the game and just wanting the haircut, so I'm sure I made her job harder haha. Then, I was forced into playing a tournament of the game where all the players were mohawk receivers... and of course they kept panning back to me because I was the only girl playing that round. Which I think was a bad move on their part because I am HORRIBLE at shooters, so I was shooting the people on my team. It was pretty damn embarrassing. At least my friends had no interest, so they didn't watch the disaster.

Me after the shave, with FC3 badly spray painted onto my head. I swear I did not intentionally smugly pose for this photo. I had just gotten a new cell phone, and my tiny hands are not used to these new fancy big-screened devices, so I had trouble aiming the camera!





However, this IS me being a bit of a camera whore. I needed to play around with the camera as a sort of therapy. Going from long curly locks to a shaved and hawked head is a big leap and takes getting used to, even if you like it for the most part (and especially if you have body image issues). Also, a big spiky mohawk isn't really me. My hair is curly, it hates and fights against being anything but curly (it immediately starting curling even when they spiked it), and spiking glue doesn't make it curl any less than it normally would. So privately camwhoring allowed me to see my curly-hawk from different angles.





The man getting hawked next to me had long dread down to his butt. He was getting the game for his friend. I don't think he realized the leap he was making in shaving off all the dreads from the sides of his head. He had a really hard time and actually looked like he was trying with all his might not to cry in front of everyone. During the tournament he was puffing one of those electronic cigarettes furiously and turned completely silent, as oppossed to his happy talkative demeanor prior. If you're a female, or are used to long hair, or are in any way connected to your hair in a way that you feel it is an actual part of you... really, don't do this. I went and got a boycut and buzzed off all my hair the night before the last day of school senior year in high school. On a whim, because I was so unhappy with myself i just did something drastic. I remember the pain the rashness of that decision brought. Even knowing what I was getting into this time I've had some crying bouts and such, and although I know it isn't really the hair (i like having short hair) but rather underlying feelings just being triggered by something visual in front of me, there's no denying that we all identify ourselves by our appearance to varying degrees. That, and knowing that other identify us by our appearances to varying degrees as well, can make any drastic change very hard to cope with. That man really did look awesome with long dreads where the mohawk would be, sides shaved. I can only hope he came to be comfortable with it, and that he stuck with the electronic cig if he was trying to quit lol.



