Heartbreak Hair
15th January, 2010 - Posted by seb22277 - 12 Comments
I get it. My heroines almost always change their hairstyle after meeting the right guy. Even when they don’t know yet he’s the right guy. It’s really a deep yearning for change, but change is hard to come by. So for the moment, they settle on their hair.
I first understood the trans formative power of a hairstyle when I was twelve years old. My best friend had gone and gotten herself a boyfriend. One that left no time for me, and our beloved sleepovers, gossip and junk food. She had new friends, a new man and sudden amnesia when I passed her in the hall at school. It left me with a fierce desire to be someone else.
“Mom, can you take me for a haircut? Now?” After eight hours of hard labor at an office, it wasn’t high on her to-do list.
“I’ll take you this weekend.”
“No, now, pleeease…”
She looked at me for a long moment. “You know what? You’re old enough to go without me. Ride your bike up to the corner, go into the salon, and tell them what you want.”
The world shimmered with possibilities. “You’d let me go by myself?”
I’m sure the thought of thirty minutes to herself informed her quick decision. “Yes. Go.”
It was a little scary but I was determined as I marched into the haridresser.
The feathered wings of hair thing was the style of the moment, and I felt like Farrah Fawcett when I climbed out of the chair and tossed my head. Yes!
Now I was too cool for my now boyfriend-ed best friend, and I got to do the ignoring at school the next day.
It only felt good for a minute. As those of us who’ve been around long enough to remember a multitude of hair fads know, hair change isn’t real change. It may signal what’s to come, or reflect what has come and gone—but in the end it’s just—deep sigh– hair.
What’s your hair story? Has your style changed so often no one is surprised when they see your newly tinted curls coming their way? Or are you a one-hairstyle since forever kind of loyalist? Tell all quickly, please.
I’m due in my stylist’s chair tomorrow.
Posted on: January 15, 2010
Filed under: Miscellaneous
12 Comments
traci
January 15th, 2010 at 9:16 am
How funny – and i never realized that doing/changing hair could be a small step toward an entire inner change!! How brave you were…I had cowlicks and couldn’t ever get the right style.
Mary Ricksen
January 15th, 2010 at 9:17 am
I think I need a trip to the saloon too, I mean salon.
Yup, on my way!
Suzanne Rossi
January 15th, 2010 at 9:48 am
As a kid, my hairstyle was either a chin length bob with slanted bangs (my mother couldn’t cut straight to save her life) or a pony tail. As a teenager, I discovered Clairol and went blonde. I let my hair grow every winter and whacked it off in the summer.
Not much has changed over the years. Color came and went as did the styles–the Mia Farrow look from Peyton Place, the gypsy, the shag, the Twiggy look–I had ‘em all. I eventually found a short, sassy spiked do I kept for years. Very low maintenance. Then I got the urge to grow it long again. Worked until I remembered I had naturally wavy hair.
I went to the stylist this week. I now have a shag. It seems everything old is new again.
And Mary, I agree with you. A trip to the saloon is more fun than a trip to the salon.
Suzanne Bohen
January 15th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Here’s an entry for the “you can have it all file”: Some salons serve wine. And a friend and I once went to a stylist who kept a bottle of scotch for us at her station. So sometimes you get very lucky and your saloon is indeed also a salon…
–Suzanne
allisonchase
January 15th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I always had longish hair as a kid until my mother got the bright idea that if we cut it, it would curl like it did when I was a baby. Really, Mom? Were you insane? Ugh! Result: I spent the next several years growing it out until it was waistlength and I didn’t cut more than the ends until I was in my midtwenties. It had kind of become a security blanket.
Nowadays, I can live without a lot of things, but not Joanne at the salon and not my straightener. (Did you all think I had naturally straight, neat hair? HA!)
Lyn Armstrong
January 15th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Yes, Allison, I did think you had natural straight, neat hair. Now your secret is out, I don’t know what to think. LOL.
And Suzanne Rossi, you say you got a shag at the salon? Geesh, where can I find a hairdresser like that? Tee Hee…okay, enough of the dirty jokes.
(Clears throat respectively)
I’m nominated for prez this year, I gotta at least pretend to be a good girl. LOL.
You can stop laughing now. ;0)
Lyn
Jan Washburn
January 15th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Hey everyone, just be glad you didn’t grown up with my generation. The hairstyle for kids (both male and female) was known as the Dutch Cut. Bangs and then short, straight hair all around. Jan
Suzanne Rossi
January 16th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Jan, that’s the hairstyle my mother subscribed to when I was 5.
Lyn, I had a chuckle at your comment. Forgot what that term could mean to some. LOL. Wouldn’t get your definition of shag at my salon. Hairdresser is gay, but they do have wine.
Mona Risk
January 16th, 2010 at 7:19 am
Like Allison I spend my life fighting the frizz and straightening the curls. In summer I give up and let it go natural. Then people ask me you had a perm? Yeah, I permed my hair in th ocean.
Nancy Cohen
January 16th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
As author of the Bad Hair Day mysteries, I couldn’t resist this topic. I made my sleuth a hairstylist because I can’t do my own hair worth a darn. I wore my hair long and straight or shoulder length flip or curled under until our first son was born. He kept yanking on my hair as a baby and that made me cut it. That’s the day when perms were popular so I went curly. Outgrew that phase and went back to curled under or curled out, the rest flat as a pancake. As you can tell from looking at me, I still can’t do my own hair. I need Marla!
Kristin W.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:41 am
I didn’t officially cut my hair (other than occasional trims) until I was in 10th grade. At one point I could almost sit on it it was so long. I remmeber when I finally did go in for the Big Haircut the stylist looked at me…Her eyes went bug-out wide and then she said, “Are you sure?” I did it and the cut revealed that I actually had very wavy/curly hair. The weight was the only thing making it straight.
josh bohen
July 24th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
i like my full head of hair
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