At the beginning of the year I resolved to lose weight and get my finances in order in 2015. We’re not quite through January, and after wavering back and forth I’ve come up with yet another goal for this year: I want to grow out my pixie cut.
I cut my long hair into a short, stacked bob in April of last year, and was thrilled with the change. Even though I was absolutely in love with my cut, I had always wished that I was daring enough to try a pixie cut. I admired women with such short hair, especially when my own long, blonde locks were decidedly boring in comparison. So in June, I decided to just go for it and take the plunge, and got the pixie cut I’d always wanted to try.

It was fantastic. I loved it. My short hair was cute, flirty, and everything I’d hoped it would be.
But now it’s been several months, and I’m bored with my hair. Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I tire of my hairstyle easily and like to change it up. I’ve had lots of different haircuts and hair colors over the years, and once again I’m ready for something new.
All that to say, I’ve decided to grow out my pixie cut.
Anyone who has ever grown out a short cut is probably snickering at me right now, because the process is quite frankly a PAIN. You go through lots of awkward stages during growout that will tempt even the most patient of pixies to head to the salon to get their hair whacked off again. I knew that there had to be people out there with advice, so I took to the Internet to do some research about how to go about growing my pixie into a short bob. There are lots of great articles and posts on the subject, my favorite being this one by Rachel Perkins. Across the board, one of the biggest pieces of advice offered up by successful former pixies is to get regular trims and discuss your growout plan with your stylist. I know that sounds counterintuitive: you want your hair to grow longer, so why cut it? But the reasoning behind it is to keep shaping your hair into the style that you ultimately want instead of just getting shaggy, uneven hair, and also to keep your hair healthy and free of split ends. I know I don’t want to reach my ideal hair length, just to have a ton of split ends that need to be cut off!
First, I hunted around and found a picture of what I want my hair to end up looking like. I know I don’t want to have really long hair again, I just want a bit longer style, like an inverted bob. I came across this style and just fell in love:

 
Then I made an appointment with Annie, my favorite stylist, and showed her what I had in mind. She assured me that she could get me from my current length to what I had in mind without too much grief, and that it was a great cut to transition to.
Having short hair will definitely give you an idea of what sections of your hair grow the fastest. For me, the hair at the base of my neck gets long faster than any other place on my head, so after five or six weeks I begin to have a bit of a mullet going on. Annie trimmed that hair shorter and angled my hair so it’s longer in front. Ultimately, the goal is to let the hair at the crown of my head catch up to the hair at the base of my neck in length. She texturized and shaped the sides of my hair, and neatened up my bangs (I’m trying to grow them out, I hate having short bangs).
Now the hair at the crown of my head needs to grow about another inch before it can be blended into the hair at the base of my neck. The sides of my hair are going to take a bit longer to finish rowing out, since I want them to end up about chin-length. Already I can see my ultimate hairstyle taking shape, and with my hair freshly trimmed I have zero urge to cut it off right now (we shall see how I feel in a few weeks though!).

 
To style my hair during the growing-out process, I have become rather hair product obsessed. My hair is on the fine side, so I’ve been using OGX Thick & Full Biotin Shampoo to give myself more volume (and because supposedly biotin helps hair grow faster). It smells nice, and my hair definitely looks fuller since I’ve started using it. For styling, I’m loving Bed Head by TIGI products. After I wash my hair, I apply Bed Head Small Talk Thickifier for added volume and Bed Head After Party to protect my hair from heat styling (this product also makes my hair super shiny!). Once my hair is dry, I flat iron the front pieces just to smooth them into place, and then apply Bed Head Head Banger spray wax to my roots for some extra volume and texture.
I’m super happy with the shaping Annie did with my hair last night, and I really can see my desired style starting to emerge. I’m also happy to be free of that mullet! And I’m excited to be sporting my new style by summer.