IHSAN KHAIRIR

So many friends and family tying the knot this month. If I were to go to all the weddings I’m invited to, I’d have four or five free buffet lunches every weekend for the whole month.

Just this last week, I went to three out of four friends’ weddings, the one I missed was because the reception was too far away and going there meant that I’d have to miss the other three. Sorry Ayu, I know you had a wonderful time anyways!

Speaking of tying the knot, here I’d like to share with you a (not so) recent photo I took of a knot.

Care to guess what that is?

An electrical cord?

A wire cable?

A fishing line?

Actually, it’s a strand of hair.

A strand of hair, knotted in the middle.

No it’s not my hair, because it’s quite long in its entirety. I found it on a white tiled floor, so I used an off-camera flash and reversed my lens to get a closeup shot of the knot on the hair.

It was my first time getting a closeup shot of a strand of hair, so getting it in focus manually wasn’t that easy. I had to make sure no wind was blowing so that the hair wouldn’t move, so I had to turn the fan off. The room was small and cramped and the windows face east so it was hot without the fan blowing. I only took a few shots until I was satisfied with the results, and then turned the fan on, causing the strand of hair to be blown away and disappear.

…

On another note, it feels great to be back to blogging again; I haven’t been blogging for a week and felt so at unease that I had to resume my regular postings today, even though I still have much to do work-wise.

Are you glad that I’m back blogging? I hope you do. Because I’m looking forward to hearing from you all again!

Lately, I realized (and I’m pretty sure some of my friends did as well) that I’ve been wearing the same kind of wardrobe and the same kind of hairstyle and the same kind of look everywhere. And it bores me. I look at myself in the mirror every morning and ask myself ‘how should I look today?’ and end up wearing that same black t-shirt and combing my hair that same side parting I wear almost every day. It’s not fun, not exciting, and not random. It feels mundane, and not the normal kind of mundane, but the repetitive cycle of the same thing over and over again like a sine wave kind of mundane. And I feel like I should get a change going on.

So here’s me putting myself in the line of fire, parading horrendous profiles of myself over the last few years, and asking you this question: Which is a good look for me?

1. Short or almost bald

I wore this hairstyle quite a few times… back in the days when I felt like a trip to the barber’s a waste of time and munny. The situation was usually like this: I wake up in the morning, look at the mirror and see myself with my big bed hair. Back of my neck tickles, my head feels too warm, and my hair is all over my face. Electric hair clipper plus an hour in the bathroom results in the look you see above plus gaping stares from friends who just saw me with my long hair the day before.

2. Side parting

I have been wearing this look forever. My friends say I look ‘preppy’ (or ‘skema’ in Rojak terms) when I have my hair side parted, long or short. I usually have my hair like this when I don’t feel like standing out, or to look older or more formal in some sense. A hairstyle I would almost always wear to job interviews and conference presentations.

3. Long or semi-long straight or wavy hair

Usually the hairstyle I maintained for a couple of months before suddenly going bald (see collage 1). I love having my hair long and straight but hate it when the weather’s hot and humid and makes my hair stick out unmanageably in all sorts of directions. And it gets everywhere too. I have my hair long (and big) mostly because I have a family history of baldness on my dad’s side and it is almost inevitable that I would end up being a bald grownup, so I decide to enjoy my hair while it’s still on top of my head.

4. Random, et cetera

Side parts, middle parts, crew cut, greased, messy, thin, short, et cetera. Whatever style that’s possible given the current condition and length of hair.

5. Care not about the look of the hair and cover it up with headgear

I used to love winters in the States because it meant that wearing my hair long won’t be too hot or warm on the neck and shoulders, and that I can wear my snowcap without looking like a ghetto-street-wannabe. Other seasons I just wear a cap whenever I felt lazy to do anything with the hair. The songkok is worn on special occasions and with certain attires or when I go to the mosque to pray.

Right now the length of my hair is somewhere between collages no. 2 and no. 3.

So how do you think I should look? 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5?

Or should I just leave it to the hairstylist / barber to decide?

Feedback and opinions, personal and/or professional, are welcome. Critiques are fine as well.

P/S: ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’ this if you think it is necessary that more people see this and give their input. Thanks.