Meeting Michael D Higgins with my new Purdy Bob

I met Michael D Higgins, the President elect of Ireland when I was a child. I must have been about 8 years old at the time, and a very small child as Michael D Higgins seemed like a giant man. He's not. The word "diminuitive" is widely used to describe him. It 's a bitter sweet memory. Higgins was campaigning on the streets of Dundalk on a busy Saturday afternoon and my dad, who was active in Northern Irish politics across the border in Newry, took me to meet him. But I was preoccupied with something else. Earlier that day I had had my very long hair cut up short into a "Purdy bob". It was the must go to hairstyle of the day, as pertinent to contemporary culture as the Rachel from Friends shag was to the 90's. But for me it was traumatic. I felt shorn and blamed my mum who I believed (and probably still do) couldn't be bothered dealing with the early morning school run hassle of plaiting, brushing, etc.

As I felt my dad's hand in my shoulder blades gently shove me towards Michael D, I felt a lump in my throat thinking he never knew me with long hair and now I look like Joanna Lumley from the New Avengers. 

The day I met the future President of Ireland and the day I lost my locks.