Dating is like a bad haircut

It's something that you invest in, that you carry with you, and that takes a long time to get over. Am I talking about a relationship, or a bad haircut? See, that's the problem, it could be either! This may be more relate-able for females than males, but if you've ever experienced a really bad hair cut you know how much it can ruin your day, and many days after until you either intellectualize the bad hair cut and decide not to be affected by it, or until you get a better hair cut. But what if the next hair cut is bad too? It becomes a terrible cycle of waiting for the hair to grow out enough that it can be salvaged, and it's often a very long and demoralizing process.
The first few bad cuts you think, "maybe I just need to find a different stylist", or "maybe I didn't properly communicate what I was looking for and it will be better next time", but at some point you begin feeling like there isn't a person in the world who can fix what's broken (your hair).
Dating is very much the same. A few bad experiences build on each other until you start feeling like there isn't a person in the world who is right for you. I recently went nine months without a hair cut (avoidance much?) because I just didn't feel like paying $40 for someone to make me look and feel terrible. It got to the point though that I had to just take a leap of faith, try someone new, and hope for the best, because my hair really was in a tragically mangy state. I would say I am at pretty much the same place emotionally about dating as I was about getting a hair cut. I don't want to go through it all again! But, after taking that little leap of faith and putting my damaged, feral locks into the hands of yet another "professional", I finally got a decent hair cut! And oh, the pure joy and relief I experienced! I know I shouldn't get this worked up about something as silly as hair, (it is the frame of the face you know...and according to some people that's all I've got going for me) but allow me some girlish follies, will you? The liberation I felt after finally getting a hair cut that didn't make me go straight home and cry got me thinking about relationships. Maybe it takes a few really bad ones before you can truly appreciate the good. Maybe it just takes the right person to listen to what you want and to care enough to try and give it to you. Maybe you have to take a leap of faith with each new person and hope for the best. Or maybe love is nothing like hair and I should just be happy that I don't look like an Edward Scissorhands experiment gone wrong anymore.