I do trim it now and then, sometimes even as much as six inches. Anyone who saw me during the "raccoon years" understands why I cut off so much. The rest of you can just imagine the old trick of dipping the ends of a girl's pigtails into an inkwell, and the drastic amputation that might be necessary as a result.

Another reason why I won't cut it is that I discovered recently that with shoulder-length hair, I look exactly like my mother. :-)

My college roommate once managed a 5-strand braid (diagram), and Barb did a 5-strand french braid in her own hair. Sorry, I don't have pictures of the 5-strand braids. Unfortunately, I can't do french braids and related styles without help -- it's physically impossible. Try this: clasp your hands behind your head with your elbows out, the way you would if you wanted to do situps or lie on the floor. Now, without changing the way your arms are bent, how far can you reach down your back? About shoulder-blade level, right? Unless I let go of the already-braided part, I can't move my hands far enough away from my head to separate the new strands of hair properly for a french braid.

My former housemate Greg Lindahl is another long-hair junkie.

Klutz Press, the people responsible for all those books about juggling, yo-yos, kooshes, and so on, have put out two books about braids: one for kids, one for adults. I highly recommend the adult version. I haven't looked through the kids' version much but I expect it's good too. If you can't find the books locally, the Klutz web site has ordering info, 800 number, etc.

The state of Delaware used to put only 6 characters on their license plates. But then, they did other silly things too. In the last few years my car has been registered in Pennsylvania, then California. Both of those states allow 7 characters, so now I'm "RAPNZEL". And I've only got 47 more states to collect the whole set!