Debbie grabs a bite of hair purgatory!

I was taking a walk and felt a tickle on my right ear. I swatted at what I assumed was an insect four or five times before I realized it was actually my own hair. My hair is longer now than it has been in at least 20 years. Not that it’s down to my waist or anything, but it still requires adaptation.

This transitional hair period is what comes of arriving at the hairdresser’s in a state of general discontent. Nothing in my life seemed to be moving. So, when Anthony popped me in his chair, I looked in the mirror and asked what he might do if I wanted something different. He practically jumped up in the air. (If you have a job where women show up clutching photos of movie stars and demand the same look even after you tell them it will look hideous on them, apparently those words are music.)

Anthony suggested growing out my hair, with wisps on the sides, and longer in the back. After he assured me that he wasn’t putting me in a mullet as a Halloween joke, I said, “Let’s do it.”

The last two visits have involved more shaping and fluffing than actual cutting. And there has been lots of “product.” That’s the stuff in a tube designed to restrain my coarse hair’s tendency to grow out instead of down, a tendency that has not diminished with age. My fear of longer hair is reinforced by a photo from when I was about 14, in which I have so much hair sticking out behind my head, I look like I’m standing in a hurricane. I was indoors.

Well, the new ‘do is less expensive than buying a red sports car and not as difficult as losing weight. On humid days, I can’t decide if I look like Paula Deen or a Pomeranian, but I’m sure it’s nothing that a few more tubes of “product” can’t fix. Any advice for me?

Debbie Moose is the author of four cookbooks. Her latest is “Potato Salad: 65 Recipes from Classic to Cool.” Check out her blog, Moose Musings.