Hair-story!

When my mom was about eight or so my grandmother took her to a salon to have her hair cut. It was the beginning of summer, and they were living in Hawaii so my grandmother had my Mom's hair cut very, very short. Apparently this was an extremely traumatic experience for my mother, and she never really recovered from it.

Because of her own hair trauma, my mom almost never let me get my haircut when I was little. The hair cuts I did get were just trims, and they were done at home by my mom or my aunt.

My Mom and I circa 1991

So I had the same hairstyle from age 3-12. All one length with bangs straight across my forehead. By 6th grade I was tired of being made fun of for the home haircuts and dying to have shorter layered hair. Around my 12th birthday I finally got permission and used my report card money for my first professional haircut.

Since 12 my style has changed a bit. I grew out the bangs in 9th grade, and in 11th grade I found a stylist I loved for the first time. I got my haircut by Josephine once every 9-12months for the next 6 years. It was all very routine: grow hair out long enough to donate to Locks of Love; cut to shoulders; repeat.

I kept up that routine after college as well. My last haircut I donated 14 inches to locks of love. Last time I grew out my hair to donate I realized that I don't actually like having really long hair. I vowed never to donate again.

It has now been over a year since my last cut and I'm ready for a really big change. I'm a little hesitant because I haven't really found a stylist here in Boston yet. Thursday I'm going to a salon near my house that has 4 1/2 stars on yelp, and caters to the hip urban crowd in my neighborhood. I'm hoping to walk out of there with a style I can call my own.  
Here is my "before" self-portrait: 

Long, straight, BORING

I could make a change by adding some bangs:

Or I could make the change by going shorter than I ever have:

  

Or I could play it sort of safe: 

 What do you think?