Growing your hair out is a year-long course in ignoring opinions. Everyone has one about your in-between stage.

Anything that takes a long time in public comes with commentary, and most of it arrives during the part where nothing looks finished. People offer opinions about the middle as though you had asked for a vote, when the middle is simply what the route looks like from outside. Nobody has to live with the result except you.

Decide in advance this week what you will do with opinions you did not ask for. Thank people and carry on. Keep one person whose view you actually want, and let the rest be weather you walk through.