I am in the midst of one of the most challenging, yet interesting, tasks that I’ve undertaken in my life. The best part is that this “challenge” is something that millions…no, BILLIONS of people achieve every day without any problem. My challenge is to try not to cut my hair. Yes, you read that correctly. My challenge is to see how long I could go without getting a haircut and it’s incredibly, incredibly tough for me.
My goal is to be completely comfortable with being uncomfortable. I believe that if I venture so far out of my comfort zone that I am comfortable with discomfort, then I will be more resilient to change.
The one thing in my life that I’ve religiously done every two weeks since 1999 is get a haircut. As a result, my hair has never grown to be longer than a stubble and I have never worried about anything related to my hair. But now this is no longer the case.
My last haircut was 30 days ago and now I’ve grown 30 days worth of hair on my head. In addition to that, I’ve had to raid my sister’s hair product collection to find a hair serum engineered to tame this mane of hair that has taken residence on my head. I have to budget extra time each day to actually brush my hair so that my hair doesn’t seem like I just rolled out of bed. It’s a challenge, but I’m fine with it because it’s all for a good purpose.
In contrast, a year ago I went two weeks and 3 days without getting a haircut and I felt like someone flipped my world upside down. I questioned my views on reality, experienced blurred vision and found it hard to walk straight. Worst of all, my head started to hurt, which was my scalp’s way of rejecting the weight all of the extra hair that it was not used to managing. Today my little experiment must be working well because I’m mostly comfortable with my mini ‘fro and it’s been a LONG four weeks!
Now I’m considering growing my hair, mustache and beard like Quest Love so that I could push my family and friends out of their comfort zones. Maybe I might also start speaking with an Australian accent to make things completely uncomfortable and awkward—that’s sure to do the trick!