My hair

Some of the posts that I'll be publishing over the next few days will be accompanied by pictures featuring myself. Before you see those, a disclaimer is necessary. Just before I left for Israel, I decided I would neither wash nor cut my hair for the duration of my travels. At that point, my hair had already not been cut since mid-October, I think.

The reason for deciding against washing my hair is that hair is supposed to be self-cleaning. Plus, there are water shortages in both Israel and Nepal, so I figured I'd be doing at least a little to conserve water by not standing under the shower for ages. It turns out that whilst hair may be self-cleaning of its natural dirt, it is not self-cleaning of Kathmandu muck and pollution, so after two months, and seeing the grossness that had accumulated on my comb, I caved in. Once I washed my hair, my head felt at least a couple of pounds lighter!

I have not, however, cut my hair. It is now the longest it's been in over ten years and it looks awful. It goes through rough periods, then settles down into a new, reasonable-looking style, then grows out of that too. I have very thick, dense hair and this length and heaviness really doesn't suit me. But I'm going to keep growing because I may as well take this opportunity to see what happens if I don't cut it for several months - I can't imagine myself conducting a similar experiment once home. And my trusted hairdresser back in London will have plenty to work with for a possibly interesting new style once I get back.

So, just bear that in mind when you see the photos!