Coming to terms with aging.

A while back I bumped into a former high school crush. He had gained quite a bit around the middle, and his hair was thinning. (he was still as charismatic as ever though) My first thought was, wow, we're getting old. I don't feel like I look very old yet, but I do have some gray hairs, and wrinkles around my eyes. I've also noticed that it takes cuts and scrapes (and mosquito bites) longer to heal than it used to.

As a child I remember being told I was beautiful by my aunt. I've since wondered if she told me that primarily because she believed it, or because she worried about my self esteem since I had scarring on my face from having a birthmark removed. Whatever her reasons, I've always believed it, and am actually a little vain (well sometimes I'm vain, other times not so much). So I worry a little about getting old.

As old as I might feel at times now, I know I'm still pretty young and healthy, but what about when the few gray hairs turn into a head full, and the wrinkles fill up my face so much that a grandchild says something to the effect of "your face is full of cracks", like I said to my grandmother. Will my appearance become less important to me? Will I feel like I need to start wearing the full array of makeup? Will I be depressed that I'm no longer culturally considered young and attractive (well, attractive is relative, but you know what I mean).

The natural look has worked well for me, and I'd hate for that to change.

How do you deal with the fact that you can't stop aging? It's coming for you. Do you welcome it, or run as fast as you can for anti-aging products?

Long Hair is feminine

Throughout my life I've cycled between having long (or longish) hair and chopping it off short. When I first started dating my Mister, a sister-in-law of his commented on my short hair. It may have been a compliment, or a statement of fact- perhaps she saw a picture of me with longer hair before meeting me.... whatever her reason, it perpetuated my idea that to be feminine, you should have long hair (well, I only ever felt that way for myself. I don't remember ever seeing anyone else's short hair and thinking they weren't feminine- usually I see women with short hair and it makes me want to cut my hair short.)

Anyway, I think I look better with short hair, but a part of me always feels like I ought to have longer hair (and I'd love to have hair like in the shampoo commercials- that and two complete eyebrows (and complete vision) are my hope for the resurrection). I have some friends who always keep their hair short, and some who always keep it long. Fewer seem to cycle between long and short like I do. It seems like a silly thing, but I'd like to make peace with my hair length.

If I can find something that looks okay when I go running (and where the sides don't bounce) and something that looks okay when camping (short of wearing a hat), I think I could get over the "feeling more feminine" with long hair pretty easily. I chopped my hair to jaw length yesterday, so it's a big change, and so far, I'm not feeling too much haircut remorse yet.

Does anyone else have weird hair issues like me? If so, what do you do about it?