Advise Lisa: A Hair Cut Dilemma

I need some advice, stat. Let’s think of today’s column as “Ask Lisa,” only in reverse. Perhaps “Advise Lisa” will stick and become a regular topic here at CatholicMom.com. J

I have a love-hate relationship with my thick, coarse hair. The stylists all tell me I have great hair for them to work with, but I find it nearly unmanageable and difficult to style. I’ve worn it short, and I’ve endured it long. No matter the style, my mane requires a good thinning out about every six weeks.

Several years ago, I found a stylist who “got” me. She listened well, charged a fair rate, and shaped my hair into a style I loved and could manage. Then she went and got promoted as a master instructor at a hip cosmetology school and stopped cutting hair. How dare she, right?! For the past decade, I’ve struggled to find a stylist who gets my hair and me. Yet I’m spending more money than ever in my attempts to find one.

I’m conflicted. I fear my fixation with getting a decent haircut is becoming a bit disordered, especially considering what I’m paying. Christian stewardship calls us to safeguard material and human resources and use them responsibly. Responding generously to that call can be difficult in a culture that encourages focus on our pleasures and ourselves. I struggle to envision Mary, the Mother of God, sitting in a salon getting expensive haircuts, highlights, and eyebrow waxes every six weeks. But I know for sure that living with a bad haircut wears on me, thereby challenging my ability to respond generously in my daily vocational walk as an at-home mom.

I’m attempting to find a balance between stewardship and dignifying myself in appearance. After all, St. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

I don’t pretend this is a moral issue or that a bad haircut offends God. However, St. Paul’s point is still relevant, and I would like to anoint my head with a good haircut. Is that too much to ask? Help me here. How do you approach budgeting for personal beautification? And if you know a rock star stylist in the Des Moines metro area who fits the bill, I’m all ears … and hair.