'Corto' apparently a no-go

BsAs prefers long and lustrous

Many of you know I have a hair problem.  Where some people buy ridiculously expensive shoes and others get a new tattoo, I take out any angsty/bored/time-for-a-change mood on my hair.  It's how I ended up with a pixie cut at 15, purple hair at 20 and a speakeasy bob at 23.  That same scissors-first, questions-later impulse has now made me the sheered llama in a country full of alpacas.

Just ask Natalia Oreiro

In March, I got my hair trimmed at an authentic peluquería one block from my apartment.  The episode wasn't traumatizing like my experience in Italy (picture a scary Italian woman with sideburns using her half-inch acrylic nails to comb in highlights), but it wasn't great either.  The diminutive man declared my hair seco y roto (dry and broken) without doing much to fix it.  Since then, my mane's looked like a nightmare so it was a wonderful stroke of luck to find Terrie, an Irish hair dresser/English teacher/anthropologist/expat.  She fixed my hair right up and now I have a cute new 'do.

Cristina isn't too keen on shorties

In just about any other international city, you'll spy people with crazy clothes and even crazier hair.  But here in Buenos Aires, long locks are the style of choice, barring the celebrated (but still vile) mullet.  I already knew this, but I was surprised today when neither my students nor my Argentine acquaintances made any comment as to the missing inches.  Of course, men might have missed it, but I know the women noticed.

Maybe they found it less than flattering?  Possibly they thought I didn't like it and therefore wouldn't want anyone to call attention to it?  Perhaps they assumed I'd had a crazy breakdown a la Britney Spears and hacked it all off?

Rebel without a weave

Regardless of the reason, I have crossed into the Land of the Lepers in terms of Argentine trendiness. Quiza my roommate (another outcast with hair above her shoulders) and I can start a bob coalition.