hair raising?

i have a favor to ask of you all. but first, for your pleasure and enjoyment, allow me to take you on a historical journey documenting some of the different styles my hair has seen over the past 25 years:

Third Grade - 1995

my hair looked pretty much like this for the first 8 or so years of my life, (yes, it was a bowl cut, and shut up it was ADORABLE) until 5th grade, when i decided to grow it out. but since i did not like to have hair covering my ears, i requested that they be cut around. and since the customer is always right, my lovely hairdresser gave me my very own mullet. (thanks, Dar! love you!)  by the time i realized my folly, it was too late and i was stuck in middle school, in a new town, trying desperately to fit in, all while growing out a spectacularly hideous haircut. let's just say i'm kind of glad i couldnt find any pictures of those years to share.

by 8th grade my hair had (finally!) grown out, and it was probably as long as its ever been - about to the middle of my back. (i have a picture somewhere, but this was pre-digital cameras and my scanner isnt working right now... maybe later.) 

**UPDATED** Found It! - circa 2000

as i started high school, i decided to chop it off, just for something different. then over the next 4 years it fluctuated between being short, then shoulder length, then short again.

Fall '04 - Senior band banquet. 

it was sometime after graduation that i stopped parting my hair straight down the middle of my head and started rocking the side part. i know this because my graduation hair was hideous, and then after that i seem to have figured it out a little. if i remember correctly, there were threats from a hairdresser involved in this particular transformation.  

college passed in much the same way as high school, at least as far as my hair was concerned. it started short, then would grow long-ish for a while, become more hair than hairstyle, and then i would cut it short again.

 Fall '05 - Freshman

somewhere around sophomore year, i re-introduced bangs into my life in the form of long side-swept bangs, after not having had any sort of bangs since the mullet-years. they mostly fell into my face, made me feel cool, and drove my grandmother crazy. i also got into the habit of straightening my hair on a fairly regular basis.

Fall '06 - Sophomore

i included this picture, not to show any major difference in my hair from sophomore to junior year, but just because it looked really, really good.

Summer '08 - Junior

somewhere between junior and senior year, i transitioned from the side bangs to more blunt, straight-across bangs... probably as a result of trimming my own bangs. i also let my hair grow out extra long during my senior year, so it would be nice and long and easy to style while wearing a mortarboard...

Spring '09 - Graduation

...and then after graduation, i chopped it all off again. that particular haircut was kind of traumatizing, since it wound up being a WAY shorter bob than i had intended. but my hair grows kind of quickly, and i didnt have a real job at the time, so it was able to grow out to a reasonable length pretty much in obscurity.

Fall '09 - first day of work.

then i went and got myself engaged in the spring, so i let my hair really grow out again, and my bangs turned back into side-bangs, so that i could have a lovely updo for our wedding.

 Summer '10 - engagement session

...and then (anyone have a guess?) i chopped if off again less than a week after our wedding. i let a random woman in a random hair salon that we found on our honeymoon do whatever she wanted to my hair, and i walked away with blunt-ish bangs and an angled bob that was chin-length in the front and stacked in the back.

 Fall '10 - one of my only Honeymoon pictures... stupid harddrive...

i loved that style, but it required more upkeep than i was interested in, so i let it grow out to about shoulder length, and then actually managed to maintain that style for about a year. 

 Spring '11 - my 24th birthday

until my sister-in-law went and got engaged, and i felt compelled to both grow my bangs out and let my hair get extra long again so i could have a fun style for her wedding.

Spring '12 - Easter

so all that to say, i have a tendency to grow my hair in cycles: i grow it out for a while. i get sick of it. i chop it off short again. wash, rinse, and repeat.

so here's where you come in: i need opinions. i am at the point in the cycle where i have been growing it out for a while, and i am about to get sick of it, but i am kind of torn as to what i should do with my hair now.

- should i continue to let it grow and possibly donate it? if i chopped it to my earlobes right now, i would be getting rid of 4-5" of hair, so would it really be that much of a stretch to let it grow a few more?
- or should i just go ahead and chop it off again for the summer?
- should i wait to chop it until my bangs get a little more grown out?
- should i bring back the bangs that i've been growing out? they're almost long enough now to all tuck behind my ears and/or pull back into a ponytail!
- has anyone seen any fun hairstyles lately that they would like to submit for consideration?
help a girl out here!