at the start of every season, i find myself mentally noting a list of style-related to-dos that really ought to be written down (and paired with appropriately inspiring images!). something about the whiff of change in the air, the flurry of fashion weeks, and the promise of new and wonderful things to come inevitably jumpstarts my list-making engines.
for me, the item that always ends up at the top of my style notes list around this time of year is...get a very different haircut.
my hair is currently getting long and i'm completely bored with it. i've also been one of those girls who's more or less had the very same hairstyle for years. i feel quite confident with my personal style, yet i've never quite felt confident enough with my hair, mostly due to the fact that it's thick and somewhat wavy and just unruly enough...all the reasons why i'm too easily tempted into letting it grow out and pull it back into a ponytail. (sound like familiar backstory for a classic TV makeover candidate?)
some of my inspiration images that i'm considering...
1. the Freja
this is very similar to my own hair texture, which would mean likely the lowest-maintenance cut. i had a comically bad experience with bangs when i decided to give myself a blunt fringe back in middle school, but i am re-considering them again.
2. the Alexa
a shorter, piecey take on the bob. i like that it's short enough to be significantly different, but still got some swingy texture to it.
now we segue into The Pixie group, which is filled with tempting examples of gorgeous ladies past and present who have chopped off all their hair and managed to look damn good doing it.
3. the Winona
ok, i'm posting this photo in spite of the fact that my hair texture is not like this at all. nope, just posting this photo because Winona with her circa-Girl, Interrupted pixie is still one of the most luminously beautiful ladies around. that is all.
4. the Audrey T
5. the Jean
6. the Mia
7. the Michelle
i need someone who can be two-parts Hair Whisperer and one-part artist-with-scissors. if you know of anyone who is funny and a good listener and talented and fits the description above, and is based in either Shanghai or NYC, please do let me know in the comments!
which one(s) do you like? do you have a good or bad short(er) haircut story?
I really love the first Alexa Chung picture but of couse I also love the Michelle Williams. I used her hair and Ginnifer Goodwin's as inspiration for my short cut. I don't necessarily have either's texture but finding a great stylist gives me the opportunity to tweak the haircut. I hope you post pictures when you decide (even if you cover your face).
ReplyDeletei will definitely post photos! i also really like ginnifer goodwin's adventurous take on the pixie. always nice to see hollywood actresses looking great while bucking the mainstream trends...
Deletelong hair gets boring, but i love putting it up in braids. that's probably the only reason why i keep it long even though i think a short piecey bob suits me better. the alexa is the easiest to commit to. it's short enough to be a real change, but the grow out doesn't take forever. you can also add bangs later on. i love the pixie cut but can't commit to the upkeep.
ReplyDeleteyou're totally right! i'm leaning towards the first alexa pic for the time being. and maybe some color tweaks too :)
DeleteI can't pull off the pixie because I have really flat features - I just end up looking like a rascally boy. I'm growing out my hair at this point for the wedding in June, and it's the longest I've had it since I was 12! I do like the Alexa the most (and I've had a straighter version of it for a long time now), it's versatile and easy to maintain and as someone who is anal about washing her hair everyday, the Alexa cut means I can get in and out of the shower in 10 minutes, hair washed and all! Probably TMI but oh well...
ReplyDeletemmm, wash and go is a big thing for me. i can't handle having to put in product and time styling in the AM - which is why i've been considering one of those magic straight treatments as well...
Deletequestion - by 'flat features' do you mean your facial features or your body type? i think i need to use one of those sites that lets you upload a photo and 'try on' different hairstyles to see a guesstimate of what i'd look like with a pixie. the rest is in the attitude and style, i suppose! :)
Flat facial features - my body type is the shape of a triangular onigiri. And not to be politically incorrect, but a pixie cut makes me look butch. Also, I'm very guy-ish, so I think I need a little bit of a girl-ish hair to offset the masculinity. I know being a "garconne" is all the fad - but it's easier to pull that off when you've got miles and miles of legs and you exude some sort of mysterious feminity ala Alexa. It is, however, not my forte. :-)
DeleteI have similar hair texture, and in the past have found it difficult to style. It's not straight and slick, but it's also not the perfect smooth waves I've seen in some, that looked like they used a curling iron but didn't. I've always wanted to get the Michelle, but my features are too small and I'm not sure it would work with my face shape. Like you I'm prone to tying my hair back. A few years ago, after going to the same salon in LA for about 10 years, I tried a new place and stylist based on a rec. At that time my hair was long and I had been getting magic straight perms for 10 years. She told me to chop it, get a digital wave perm, and get bangs, because long straight hair dragged my look down due to my face shape, and I guess I needed volumed at the top, instead of flat. She did it and I loved it! It also grew out well. Right now my hair is medium length but since then I style it the same way - I don't ever brush it after I get out of the shower. I just towel dry, and oddly enough, the waves come out pretty decently.
ReplyDeleteooh, thanks for adding your thoughts! how have you liked the magic straight perm? i've always been intrigued but a bit intimidated by the whole thing. does it damage your hair or change your hair texture over time at all? i had friends in college who swore by the japanese straight treatments and they'd just be able to leave the house with wet hair and let it air dry to silky straight perfection.
Deletei hate blowdrying my hair as it makes it drier and frizzier. low maintenance 'good hair' with a style i really love is still a holy grail for me!
It is definitely a holy grail for us wavy haired people! The magic straight is super low maintenance - it's true, you can step out of the shower, towel dry, and walk out and it will dry perfectly straight. It does weaken your hair somewhat, as strong chemicals are used. It's important to find someone who knows what they're doing - I've heard of people whose hair just broke off after getting a magic done. Also, because hair is weaker it's suggested not to dye when you get a magic. I found a really good stylist and went to her only, and she always did a perfect job. The other issue I'll mention is the growing out stage. If your hair is mildly wavy, growing out isn't a big deal, but because my hair texture is so wavy, it became very obvious when my hair started growing out, and I'd have to flat iron the roots after a certain point, until I got my roots retouched. It's also very expensive. Looking back, I think I should've gotten a nice bag instead of putting all that money down on my hair!
DeleteP.S. I'm really digging the "in between" length look these days - somewhere between the alexa and the freja.
ReplyDeletehear, hear! having long hair makes me put it up in a ponytail more. i think if i had the short alexa i'd wear it down as an actual 'hairstyle' more :)
DeleteI am also completely bored with my hair and have been wavering between blunt bangs and grown out bangs for years now. Still though, I just can't see myself making any drastic changes in the near future! lol.
ReplyDeleteI like the Alexa and Freya the most. The Alexa seems like it would be the easiest to maintain. Get it cut short and then hopefully it will grow out into a cute long bob.
I feel like Shanghai would be the perfect place to find a good hairstylist. In my experience, it's hard to find someone who knows how to deal with my thick, coarse, slightly wavy hair. Maybe this type of hair is more common in Asia?
well, i have not gone to a schmancy salon in China but all the other times when i've gotten a haircut, it's usually ended badly due to the stylist not listening to what i want. i don't think it's hair type as much as hairstyling aesthetics - they are really big fans of using the razor-shave method to 'thin out' thick hair into an anime/mullet style. and for some reason even when you tell them not to do that, that's the effect you end up with :P
Deletemaybe one just has to pay top dollar for a better salon experience, but jury's still out. anyone with tips on good places to go in SH?
I can relate to this, although I do alternate between loving my hair and finding it completely and utterly boring. I'd like to dye it red, or a tad darker, or cut it shorter, or keep it long - preferably all of the above, depending of the time of day. It is funny you should post that second photo of Alexa, because that is the exact hair cut that I've got saved in the back of my head for the day that I do decide to go for the big chop :)
ReplyDeletehehe - my hair grows really fast, so i've only been too happy to chop it off in the past. maybe that's the tomboy in me - i could never really get into the styling and maintenance required for keeping long hair looking pretty.
Deleteas for color, i think it's time i do something on that front as well. tempted by a slight ombre coloring...
Ombre has also been on my mind, but I guess it comes with the territory when you spend hours each day reading blogs ;)
DeleteIt would be so practical though, seeing as the whole hassle with roots showing would be out of the equation..
I agree, the success of any drastic change of haircut hinges on the skill of the hairdresser, and it can be so hard to find someone who really gets you and what you want. I was lucky to find one a few years back, and have since had to follow her around my city as she has moved salons a few times - inconvenient, but still totally worth it (actually, it probably only seem inconvenient because she went from working in the salon literally downstairs from my apartment to working in a different suburb, haha). You need someone who will actually listen closely to you and work out with you how to adjust a particular style to suit you best, and sometimes it turns out that they can adjust a style to suit your hair texture, even if you bring in a photo of someone with obviously different hair texture to yourself. I've got hair that's very wavy and when I decided to go pretty short, I took a photo of Megan Washington (this one: http://i41.tinypic.com/ng69sm.jpg) to my beloved hairdresser and even though Washington has pretty straight hair, my hairdresser managed to interpret the style in a way that suited my wavy hair, and in a way that didn't mean I would have to straighten my hair all the time to get it to sit right or whatever. It seems to have worked out rather satisfactorily, since I haven't wanted to change my hairstyle at all in the past 2 and a bit years since I first got it. So that's my happy, positive tale about getting a significantly different haircut. I'll keep the few awful, negative tales I have from the past to myself for now. ;) All the best in finding your perfect hairdresser.
ReplyDeletei think i'm going to have to do this if and when i find a really great hairstylist. will post an update when my haircut happens! :)
DeleteI totally get what you mean by the Cantopop look! My hairdresser occasionally tries to push a blunt, graphic fringe on my crop and it's so annoying! I don't want to look edgy.My hair is coarse and slightly wavy when it's long and a crop is really practical for me - I dont need to do anything, except get it cut regularly. You don't need fine hair for a crop! Neither do you need a pixie face, and I know this because I don't have one. It also makes your neck look longer, haha.
ReplyDeleteI love Freja's hair. If I ever grow my hair again (unlikely since I haven't in more than 10 years) I will have to figure out how to achieve waves that look edgy.
ha! hmm yeah i think the allure of the pixie is that it can be a game changer for your entire look, which can be good or bad. i'm still on the hunt for a really definitively 'me' hairstyle, and now it's coming down to a tie between the alexa and the pixie...
DeleteWe are in the opposite situation! I've had my hair short (at one point pixie-short) for about five years now, and have gotten bored with it and decided I wanted to grow it long again. Before cutting my hair short, I wore it long for all my life and I think we have the same hair texture. Thick, unruly plus mine has the added bonus of frizz when it's humid (which it always is where I live). I took the plunge to cut it all off after college, before I started my new job. The transition to long hair to Michelle Williams-type pixie was slow for me because it took me a while to get used to looking at myself in the mirror with short hair. I started with Alexa Chung-ish length and haircut after haircut I grew more comfortable with it being shorter and shorter until my cut was somewhere between Winona's and Michelle's haircuts.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's an approach you could take, to shorten it gradually 'til the point you are comfortable with.
And yes, nothing can beat short hair's convenience. I used to travel a lot for work, and the extra minutes I would've spent on my long, unruly hair was better spent sleeping.
As I mentioned, I'm growing my hair again, though. I haven't decided on a style yet, as I figured I have some time because hair grows back SLOW (read: the awkward stage is LONG. Uggggh). But Freja's is pretty, although strikes me as deceptively high maintenance.
my hair is similar, but it grows out really quickly so i'm always looking for it to stay shorter longer! since i pull my hair back in a pony so often i figure i'd get used to a pixie without too much of a fuss :)
DeleteI personally like the Freja but perhaps blunt bangs won't look that great when it starts getting really hot here when your fringe will start clinging to each other with the sweat and humidity (sorry I always think weather first when living in Asia -_-). You could do the Alexa and then after go for the Freja!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny in HK the style is very layered and wispy while when I tell my hair dresser I want my ends really blunt and thick, they think it's really unattractive.
hehe good point! oh god yeah there's nothing i fear more than heat and humidity and hair that gets in the way...
Deletethat layered wispy /thinned out cut really really irks me. it seems especially popular in asian salons. :P
Winona's is my favourite, I'm so eager to get my hair like hers!
ReplyDelete