Hair today, gone tomorrow

Hair!

In the shower today, I was pondering.  And, luckily for me, I remembered my pondering ALL DAY, so now I can blog about it!  My pondering was about hair.

If you have a weak stomach regarding shedding and collecting of hair, please read no further, though that is the basis for my post today.

See, I get compliments all the time on my hair.  I must admit that it is pretty fetching.  I've dyed it a delicious deep red that catches the light quite nicely.  It is just below shoulder length, about midway between my shoulder and my bra strap, and is curly and bouncy and thick.  I'm an insanely good producer of keratin-based body systems... my fingernails are gorgeous as well (not that I'm bragging, just stating the truth, as it is the premise of my post, remember).

Humans shed 50-100 hairs from their head per day.  Many people lose this hair down the drain, but the longer your hair, the more noticeable the shedding.  I brush my hair before showering, but then I also end up catching these sheds during conditioning as I pull my fingers through my hair.  Since I don't want to clog the drainage, I will stick the hair to the tiles, then collect it and throw it away at the end of the shower.

Herein lies my quandary.

Why is it that when the hair is attached to my head, it is this beautiful thing, yet when it is shed and collected in a ball, either in the shower, on the drain, or on my hairbrush, I am completely revolted by it?  I have had to fight my gag reflex when I've tossed hair into the trash.  I can't clean drains or I will actually become physically ill -- and not from any smell, I'm anosmic.  No, just from the sight of all that shed hair, all balled up.  It is disgusting, and I don't understand why I find it disgusting.  I mean, wigs aren't gross, and ponytails cut off for Locks of Love aren't.  But the messy ball of hair... *shudder* ew ew ew ew ew!

Maybe it has to do with how I was raised and the "ewwwww" factor.  Sometimes, you can be conditioned to find something gross simply because everyone around you thinks it is gross, like picking/eating buggers or scabs or whatnot.    Maybe it has to do with the hair being unkempt.  I don't know, but I wish I could get over it, because I hate that my own hair makes my stomach turn simply for the fact it is no longer attached to my head.