Wanting a new hair style

[MaggieTheCat]

So, I know without posting pics of myself this might be a little hard to ask for, but I really want a new hair style and am looking for suggestions. Right now, my hair is fairly long (a couple inches past my shoulders) and slightly layered. I don't really have bangs; the hair near my face is shorter than the rest, but still long enough for me to push behind my ears. Also, my hair is extremely thick. One of the beauticians I used to go to back in Wisconsin, who was in her 50s and had been cutting hair since her 20s, commented that mine was the second thickest hair she's ever encountered in all her time doing hair. It's also naturally very very dark; on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being pure black and 10 being platinum blonde, mine is a 2.

So, here's what I'd like. Short. I've never had super-short hair (it's always been at least long enough to cover my ears) but I'm considering going really short. For one, because I feel like something different, and for two, because now that I'm in Texas, this much hair gets really HOT on my neck and shoulders. Even when I put it up now, it's thick enough that I still get really hot.

I was thinking something along the lines of short in the back but longer in the front, like this: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3019/...c18c05dda0.jpg

I am a little worried about going THAT short, but I really do like that hair style. Also, I do NOT want anyone to thin my hair, my old beautician often wanted to take the thinning sheers to me and I wouldn't let her. I like my thick hair, even if it is hot, and I've heard bad things about ladies with thick hair getting it thinned and it never growing out the same again. I want to be able to grow my hair out again later on if I want to. If I get something really short in the back, and they shave part of it, will it still grow back out the same way it is now?

I guess I'm just looking for general hair advice, maybe some other styles that anyone thinks look nice. Or ideas for coloring. I like to have my hair colored (not just natural colors, either, I've experimented with green and purple before) and I saw a style recently in which someone with very dark hair (like mine) had blue highlights in it, that looked really nice.

[thegiraffe]

Because you have such thick hair, I would be wary about going that short. You don't want it to stick straight out in the back!! I live in Florida and have a lot of hair, and I cut it up to just above my shoulders...to that little bone you can feel at the nape of your neck. I had her layer it some and then slightly angle the front of it so it frames my face. It's been in the mid-upper 90s here (ugh...) and I stay pretty cool, but it's also long enough to put up in a ponytail if I want to.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Shaving it shouldn't make any difference in how it grows out. It won't affect the root (if you wax your legs or pluck your eyebrows, you might notice that the hair doesn't always grow back, or comes in thinner, because pulling it out at the root can damage the follicle. Shaving it won't do that.

Beyond that, well, let's just say thick hair has never been a problem for me

[blas]

If you have the money, you could get your hair thinned out before you get it cut shorter.

Shorter hair is definetly easier to manage if your hair is more fine or thin, but if you want to keep your thickness (and who wouldn't want to, I'd do anything for thicker hair!) I'd avoid going too short and maybe do some messy shaggy layers and keep the length at the bottom of your neck or top of your shoulders with some mod looking straight bangs that come to about the top of your eyebrows.