Hair Cuts And Other Things That Give Me Buyer's Remorse

To be fair, as my sister pointed out to me recently, most things give us buyer's remorse, so perhaps a list like this is a little redundant. Still, I think it's rather interesting to investigate the strange phenomenon that is, "Buyer's Remorse".

According to Wikipedia (not ordinarily my go-to source, but I quite like this explanation):

Buyer's remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase (or in my case, even a decision). It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a car or house. It may stem from fear of making the wrong choice, guilt over extravagance, or a suspicion of having been overly influenced by the seller.

 So what are my current top 3 buyer's remorse items? In no particular order:

Hair Cuts
I can think back to possibly every hair cut I've had my whole life, and nearly all of them would count. As I've mentioned before, I have a long history of love-hate relationships with hair stylists, and a lot of the time (too much of the time) the style I end up leaving the salon with is not quite the picture I had in mind when I walked in. I sometimes wonder if I made a bad choice - in hair style and stylist (and if in hair style, why didn't someone say something?). I always wonder if perhaps I didn't explain myself properly. I know hair grows back. I also know that there have been times I've needed the cut. Still, I can't shake that nagging feeling of regret.

Kind of what my hair was meant to look like...

What my hair really looks like...

Down Scaling
So technically this is anti-buyer's remorse, but it's kind of the same principle - to me, anyway. There have been a couple of 'events' in my life that I decided to celebrate in a pretty low-key manner (the biggest of these being: our wedding and a couple big birthdays). Similarly, when faced with choices (like holidays and baby things) we've often chosen more basic, sometimes cheaper options. And while I've never been unhappy with the result, per se, I have sometimes wished that we'd been braver, gone bigger and made more of a hoo-ha about it. I guess the up side of this 'anti-buyer's remorse' is that some of these things we can do over - perhaps not a wedding reception (we decided on a cocktail party), but certainly a few other things (and at least we didn't really waste any money!).

Kind of what our wedding was meant to look like...

What our wedding really looked like...

My Tattoo
Now before I hear a collective chorus of "I told you so", let me clarify: I do not regret getting my tattoo! I simply wish I had stuck to the original design. I got my tattoo last year, after years of knowing exactly what I wanted. Which is probably why, today, I still can't fathom why it doesn't look a thing like that exact design. I mean, I know what happened on the day, I just don't know how I got caught up in the artist's excitement and basically let her give me a tattoo that she wanted to give me, as opposed to what I  had asked her to give me. I think the hardest part about this one is that it can't be fixed - it won't grow back like hair; I won't get a do-over (by the way, if it were possible to just remove this one and have it redone - at no/minimal cost, I think I would have done it) - and as much as I love the sentiment behind my tattoo, I'll always wish I felt more pleased with it in the end.

Kind of what my tattoo was meant to look like...

What my tattoo really looks like...

I reckon there's a lesson or two for me in all of this though. Considering the consequences of ones choices would be an obvious one. Even more than that though, I am learning that life is not perfect, and neither are we. To think that we have arrived, or that we can navigate our lives flawlessly is simply prideful. We do and will continue to mess up and make poor decisions - and sometimes they'll haunt us (some longer than others) - but God's grace covers the extraordinary and the everyday. And it can certainly cover all of me!