Random Personal Posts by Gaelen Gates

I had braces when I was a kid, but nearly 40 years later, my teeth have moved enough that they’re causing problems, so I started doing Invisalign to get them back into place (and will eventually have a retainer to KEEP them in place). My course will be short — only about 3 months — but people have asked a lot of questions about them, so I figured I’d share my experience.

1. You really do need to wear them 20-22 hours a day. You only take them off to eat.

2. While wearing them, you’re only supposed to drink water. That means no coffee, tea, etc. unless you take them out.

3. EVERY time you put them back in, you’re supposed to brush and floss your teeth. That means, for example, if you go out to dinner with friends, you’re bringing a toothbrush and floss and ducking into the bathroom after you finish eating, like a weirdo.

4. If you remove your aligners, say, for a special event, you will still have the 10-12 clear “nubs” that are glued to the outside of your teeth for the duration of the treatment (these are what allow the aligners to grip the teeth and move them).

5. Lipstick sticks to the aligners much more than to natural teeth. I have gotten into the habit of compulsively running my tongue along the front of my teeth to clean them.

6. Starting a new tray is uncomfortable. It’s the same feeling you used to get when you’d go to the orthodontist to get your braces tightened. Your teeth just ache all day.

7. Hopefully you end up with straighter teeth that last longer than they might have if they were misaligned!

If you decide that you want bangs for the first time in probably 30 years, the first thing you should do is go to a professional hairstylist. What you should not do is decide to cut your bangs yourself. Why would you do that? You have a stylist you like. Just make an appointment. No? Okay.

The next step is to look up some video tutorials on the internet. They will generally tell you to use a comb to separate the front of your hair into a wedge shape, and to adjust it smaller or larger depending on how much hair you want for the bangs. Then comb the bangs forward, get them a little damp, and pull the rest of the hair back and out of the way. First, cut the bangs MUCH LONGER than you think they should be, then take off 1/4" at a time until you reach the desired length. What you should not do is to cut them much longer than you think they should be, think to yourself, “That’s way too long!” and chop a couple inches off.

Otherwise, keeping in mind that hair strands get shorter and often curl up a little bit as they dry, you may end up with bangs that are MUCH SHORTER THAN YOU INTENDED.

This was a month ago, so the good news is that my hair grows very quickly and I am happier with the length now. Still shorter than I intended. Also, lots of people told me that “microbangs” or “baby bangs” are on trend so I guess there’s that.

The biggest improvement is realizing how many times a day I was brushing hair out of my face. It’s so nice to have it up and out of the way. And one upside to cutting your bangs way too short is that you get to experience the whole spectrum of lengths as they grow out, and can decide which length is best for you.

Postscript: Looking at these two photos, I guess this is also a post about how great makeup is