Extensions. Some people love them, some people hate them and some simply couldn't care less (aka men.) Or perhaps I'm being inadvertently sexist and men do have an opinion on it, but not being a man nor having one at hand to ask, my blog, my opinions (sorry lads).

In April, it will have been two years since I took the chop and went from having long, curly hair to having it cut as short as Rihanna circa the Pixie cut. My hair was really getting me down and in the advent of going to uni that September, I felt I needed a massive revamp and watching a hairdresser grab the entirety of my hair into a ponytail and cut it straight off at the neck was definitely that. Looking back, I'm not a massive fan of the super short hair for myself and I can safely say I won't be going that short ever again but I'm still incredibly glad I did it.

Two years on however and it's taking ages to grow. It's just past my shoulders which, in the bigger picture, is almost quite remarkable: I didn't think it would grow back this fast but seeing that initially it did has only made me want it to grow even quicker.

But then I hit my eternal dilemma. I want tame, long, wavy hair. Instead what I have is frightfully frizzy hair which, even when straightened, often refuses to play ball. And the straightening of my hair is something of a mean feat: pre-pixie cut it could take me up to two hours to straighten my hair. Cue a lot of distress and disappointment every single morning. In the end I took to going to school with my hair scraped into a bun because I couldn't bear to look at it any more. Getting it cut definitely set me free and at the length it is now, my hair takes 30 mins tops to straighten and if I'm not starting from my natural hair state, getting ready for a night out is so much simpler.

Even so, I'm a massive magazine buyer and we're continually being flooded with slim, smiley girls with long, beach-swept hair and tantalising tans. The tan? Got it sorted, the smile is pretty much sorted too. The slimness? Yeah, could do with a bit of work but at least it's in my hands - I can change it if (or more appropriately when) I want to. But the hair? Maybe I have to accept I'm never going to be that girl. Maybe I should just stick to my natural hair: it's part of who I am and perhaps I should just learn to embrace it. And some of the time I do. I go a few days with the curls and the ringlets and it's fun. For a while. But it's still not long.

I appreciate the problems I had with long hair that prompted me only two years ago to chop it all off. I'm also aware that long hair is good in theory but the length I have now is, arguably, more accessible. Obviously extensions are not in any permanent, nor would I ever wish them to be. So in a way, maybe they're perfect for me. They can give me the taste of long hair that I desire but when I'm bored of it, I can easily go back to my more manageable - if somewhat less impressive - length.

Or maybe I'm just naive. Extensions can look terribly tacky. They too can be attached in all manner of ways that can cause damage to your hair, your head and who knows what else. My hair is unlike most people's so there's a very high chance that they'd look terrible anyway and then any money I did choose to spend on them would be wasted.  Which, as a student, is never a good thing to do.

So even after writing this, I am as undecided as I was prior and no closer to making a final decision. We always want what we can't have and if we can have what we want, maybe the reality will never really live up to the expectations. Either way, as my hair continues to grow, I do too in more ways than one and if my hair suddenly doubles in length, maybe my height will too..

(Or maybe that really is just wishful thinking).