Finally, I got to hack off most of my hair.

Well, I didn't do it.  The nice lady at Fantastic Sam's did.  And I am thrilled!  It's hard to tell in most of my pictures, but my hair was long.  LOOOOONG.  I'd occasionally have to untangle the rat from it, it was so long. (I wish I was kidding.)  But now, it is short and managable.  And, I dare say, quite cute:

And the best part is that I got the haircut for free (aside from the tip) because I donated the giant hairy hunk to Locks of Love.

The second best part of the day was when I explained the rat entanglement situation to the stylist and she nearly threw up on my head, then asked if I'd washed my hair since letting the rat touch it.  Good times.  Don't worry, I gave her a generous tip for having to touch my apparently plague-infected head.