i know i am asking a lot, but more opinions please

ok guys-you have weighed in on the make up issue(if there are any guys out there who LOVE make up on a woman, please let me know)so now i need to hear your thoughts on hair.
i got mine chopped off a few days ago. it was practically down to my waist, but my super fine hair wasnt doing so well at that length. it would do even less than its usual nothing. it was constantly in a clip or a pony tail and even if i put in my best efforts, the results were mediocre at best. so i went to my trusted hair stylist(who hadnt seen me in over a year. dont ask.)and told her what i DIDNT want. no mormon bangs(hate those, so 1989), no inverted wedge(do you have to have one of those to get a temple rec nowadays?), and i still wanted to have some hair.
i have worn it super short before, but i am tall and i have broad shoulders and to me, i look like i have this little pea head when i wear my hair short. it might just be me OR i am totally right and its like when you have broccoli in your teeth and no one wants to tell you. they think they are being polite, but there you are walking around like a dork with too short hair. er,i mean broccoli in your teeth.
anyway. she ended up cutting off about 7 inches off the back and trimming the front up. it looks pretty similar in the front, but she added some detail to the back. it still is about 2-3 inches past my shoulders and it looks a lot healthier and styling it is so much easier and the results are far better.
so tell me guys-how much do you care about womens hair? msof would throw a fit any time i trimmed my hair. he didnt care if it was all split ends and yucky looking. he wanted it LONG. a woman in my ward trimmed 2 inches off of her hair and her husband got mad at her and said "whats up with the dyke do?" when she told me about that, it pissed me off so bad. to me it not only reflects ignorance, but an attempt at control. my dad hated short hair. he said women looked like refugees when they cut their hair. he liked to quote that scripture "a womans hair is her crowning glory". unfortunately my mom did not look great in long hair. they found a compromise, but he always grumbled.
a few men i know(all lds) dont care. they say as long as their wife is happy, they are happy.pretty progressive of them, eh? one of their wives wears her hair shorter than a mans missionary style haircut-it looks cute on her, but i could never go that dramatic.
is longer better? hair that is.

no, i dont smell like a pickle

and its not the real reason for my dating hiatus. i have been thinking a lot about the fact that i started this blog to chronicle the embarrassing and hilarious stories of a 40 something, "good", mormon girl dating and trying to find her eternal companion, but i havent delivered too much in that area lately. i am working on a few posts and i am even considering getting back "out there", but for now...

GET THIS! i use apple cider vinegar instead of traditional conditioner and its AMAZING. amazing because it works and because its super cheap and gives me more shine and volume than just about any conditioner i have paid twenty bucks or more for at the salon.
both the pioneer woman and the girls at little house in the suburbs
talk about it on their blogs. i was wary, but my long, super fine, no volume hair was in desperate need of help. i was getting ready to pull a britney spears and just shave it off. i was that frustrated. i grabbed the vinegar and headed for the shower.
i used my normal shampoo like the pioneer woman does. little house in the suburbs recommends that you wash your hair with ivory soap, but i am not ready to go that granola yet. after i washed and rinsed my hair, i poured a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar over my head, taking care not to get it in my eyes or mouth. vinegar is a really strong smell and i was freaking out a little thinking i would be smelling like a pickle, but i soldiered on, gave my hair a final rinse of warm water, and got out of the shower.
i used my normal styling products and blew my hair dry and i was a little surprised, but thrilled with the results. the first thing was that i DIDNT smell like vinegar at all, not even the faintest of residual scents. next, my hair styled so easy, was shiny, and had more volume than i have seen in a long time.
i still have some conditioner to use up, so i do the vinegar rinse about every third wash or so and the benefits have not diminished at all.
i read a few comments from the other blogs and some women said that it helped with their thick, coarse hair, so you dont have to have baby fine hair like mine to benefit. try it and let me know how it worked for you.

good hair

i saw a promo for oprah last week advertising that chris rock would be on promoting his new movie "good hair" . i personally think chris rock is hilarious. i like his observations and how he makes his audiences think about some pretty important stuff-even if its with a humorous twist. what prompted chris to make this movie was his daughter(i think shes 4 or 5 years old)came home after spending the day with her little white, blonde friend and asked "why dont i have good hair?" the clips from the trailer show him trying to get to the bottom of what is going on with women(particularly black women)and their hair. as a white woman with straight hair that wont hold a curl, my experience is the exact opposite of what i saw some of these women going through. chemical straighteners, hours upon hours in a stylist chair getting their hair braided to prepare for a weave, and thousands of dollars spent for the privilege of being tortured. i saw a brief interview with ali wentworth who talks about getting the white girl's weave(extensions)and dying her hair blond because she "just wants to be pretty." the whole "blonds have more fun" and are prettier gets under my skin for a couple of different reasons(and none of them have to do with the fact that i am NOT blond). its fake. how many adults do you know that are natural blonds that dont use any chemical intervention? on the oprah interview, chris rock was pointing out all the blond women in the audience and so many were embarrassed to be booted out of the blond closet and be shown for the fakers they are. faking pisses me off. i was born a blond, but it started turning darker about age 12 and continued to get darker until my current shade of medium brown. about ten years ago i decided i needed a change and started getting highlights. i got so many over the following few years that i was back to being a blond. it was expensive and time consuming, not to mention bad for my hair. my drivers license was taken during this time when i am asked for id they do a double take. it really doesnt look like me. people joke about mormons and their attachment to being blond. the mormon child bride even blogged about how she had dyed her hair a darker color that she really liked, but knew going to her parents for a family get together was going to be rough. there would be stares. judgment. disapproval. its okay to go BLONDER, but to go darker is like....i dont know what. like wearing a t-shirt that says you drink jack daniels everyday or something. i also hate how mothers instill this love of all things blond in their daughters. my friend kelly has 2 kids. both born with beautiful blond, curly hair. her son, the older of the two gets darker the older he gets. she says nothing, but when her daughter started getting darker(around age 10), she starts dying her hair. she is now 16 and recently, in rebellion, dyed her hair red. my friend was so angry and so sad that her "beautiful, blond daughter" is no longer blond. she buys into it. with all the pressures on women to be beautiful, do we have to narrow it down to that extreme? i remember as a child being fussed over because of my blond hair and blue eyes and looking back, i guess it is a striking combination, but its rare and its short lived. just like the black girls straightening their hair or putting their weaves on lay away. chris rock concluded that all of this time, effort and money is put into our hair to impress other women. not men. i see his point,but men buy into it as well. a woman in my ward(bottle blond)decided to go a shade or two darker. she was STILL blond, just a little darker. her husband told her in no uncertain terms that he married a blond and wants to keep it that way. she thought it was the cutest thing ever. i had to bite my tongue from telling her what a jerk i thought her husband was being. on the flip side i know a couple of men who dont care at all what their wives or girlfriends hair looks like. short, long, blond, dark. they dont care as long as their wives are happy. isnt that how it should be?