Part Two
|
|
Part Two: |
I am not a licensed hair professional and take no responsibility for what you do with your hair. Gather some info and think before you act. Haircut: It takes forever to grow curly hair out. That's why you should try to look for the absolute right hairdresser. You could let your drunk best friend or that guy at Supercuts nicknamed 'Shaky' cut your hair. Do you really want to take the chance? The best way to find a hairdresser is to ask any curly haired person with a good hair cut where they get their hair cut. This is assuming that your town a) has a good enough gene pool/population to support at least one good stylist of curly hair b) is not a war zone and you can indeed go up to people and give them a compliment without risking physical harm. Just go up to them, tell them they have great hair and ask where they get it cut and by whom. I know a lot of curlyheads have had good luck with Aveda salons. Also remember that if you are going to a hairstylist, it is polite to comb or detangle your hair beforehand. Not doing so wastes your time and the stylist's time. Also, some stylists are not as gentle with a comb as you might wish they would be. There are five major haircuts shaved, boy/short, bobbed, triangle head, and Helena Bonham Carter plus of course, numerous 'freak' cuts and dreads, which can be cut into your preferred style. All of these are relatively easy to convey to hairdressers. And as for the bangs vs. non-bangs-- I'm strictly a non-bangs girl. It's hard to get them cut right even if you know what you want. |
 |
The shaved cut is self explanatory. If you buy your own clippers it's very economical, but its disadvantage is that people may ask you whether you've joined a cult/joined the army/become a serial killer/become a Nazi/come out which is only funny for the first five minutes you decide to grow your hair out. It also could get mighty cold in the winter and don't of course forget to sunscreen your head in the summer. |
The boy or 'short' cut is your standard longer on top and short back and sides cut --the standard J. Crew men's model cut. Advantage: you can probably get it at Supercuts and cheap. Easy to control. If you fry it with dye or other chemical processing it'll come back fast. Disadvantage: you have to get it done every four weeks or you look really dumb. If you have any friends that you trust who own clippers they may be able to cut it for you. Two variant of this cut are the mohawk (i.e. Mr. T) and the Isaac Mizrahi cut (um see Isaac Mizrahi-- short sides and back, longer and straight up on top). |
 |
 |
The bob is your basic Prince Valiant or flapper 'do. From ear length to chin length it's a lovely cut, but fraught with peril. Disadvantages: It's just long enough to get really cowlicky and has to be cut every four to six weeks -- preferably four, usually growing out unevenly. It requires a stylist of at least moderate talent. Advantages: It isn't quite long enough to be really tangly, but starts to be long enough to weigh itself down. With combs, headbands, and scarves, it can be managed fairly well, even on harsh hair days. It's still short enough that if you chemically damage your hair it'll be back pretty quickly. |
The triangle head isn't really a cut, but all of us who have tried to grow it out from short to long go through it. It's longer than short, but shorter than long, and it makes your head look like a triangle. You can try ponytailing it while you bite your fingernails off waiting for long hair or cut it off. |
 |
 |
Helena Bonham Carter hair is that super princessy long curly hair. Advantage: It is cheap to maintain in haircut money as you almost never have to go in to get a cut (and you can trim the ends yourself). Disadvantages: Long amounts of time combing and detangling, you have to be careful of chemical damage. Lots of styling products needed. Can get weighed down and make you look a little too much like Alanis Morissette. Advantages: versatile, can be pinned up or worn loose, ponytailed, easily controlled by braiding. Will garner the jealousy of straight haired women who never think that you never have to do a thing with it, ha ha. |
You can also dreadlock your hair which looks really cool, but can be a minefield with employers. I'm told your scalp gets itchy from dreading and once they go in, you have to cut them off. Read Anna's dread journal for more info, she knows of what she speaks. Straightening: There are several schools of thought of straightening. Some contend that natural frizz/nap is the way of beauty and some contend that they wouldn't be caught dead without relaxer. Personally I think my hair looks pretty cool and punk rock when its in its full clumpy frizzy flyaway giant goth hair glory. I kind of wish I could let my hair frizz out for a while. Unfortunately, since I am the whitest white girl on the face of the planet I kind of have to steer away from that because while black is beautiful, I'm not black and employers won't let me reach my full frizz. Sigh. There are a few ways to straighten your own hair, if you like. You can blow dry straight, with or without the use of defrizzants, preferably with a diffuser attachment on your hairdryer. Method one: take small sections of hair wind the ends around a brush and blow dry. Method two: towel dry your hair, divide into sections, and wrap the ends around a large diameter curling iron while you blow dry from the roots out. It takes a long time, has to be done every day, and will probably eventually reduce your hair to broom straw. I'm pretty sure this is what was done to Sara Gilbert/Darlene's hair on early episodes of Roseanne; her hair is straight but the ends look fried. I have heard stylists on tv claim that it is now possible to blow your hair out every day without killing it by using silicon based hair products. I'm not quite convinced. Anyway, it still takes forever to do it this way. I have had good luck with the blow drying method using a 'hot brush' which is basically a combination of curling iron and hairdryer. I've always had problems with method two above, because it seems to require more than two hands. With a hot brush you can generally avoid this problem. Remember to use a large diameter brush, and avoid/delay frizzies by using silicon based anti-frizz products. You could crimp or iron it straight, but it tends to look frizzier and result in more damage than blow drying. You can straight perm. It's a perm, only they don't put your hair on rods. I've had no luck with it in the past, but it's been ten years and they might have gotten better at it. I ended up with straight hair for about ten days, but of course the curl came back, and my hair was more damaged than ever. You could try doing a straight perm at home, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can relax your hair. It's harsher than a perm and if you haven't had it done before you should have it done by someone who knows what they are doing. Be warned that you may get nasty chemical burns on your skin. You can buy relaxer in the African-American hair care section and do it at home, but I wouldn't go that way on the first try. I've also had my hair relaxed, with rather poor results, but some people swear by it. It was a long time ago, and things change. There's a newer techniqe called thermal reconditioning that supposedly can take curly hair and make it amazingly straight. Despite the hype, it's basically relax-ing process. It's very expensive in this country (in the hundreds of dollars per session) and does not work on all hair types (not good for African-American hair, cannot be done on lye-relaxed hair.) If you get it done, be sure to look for someone experienced. You could get a weave. It's very high maintenance and expensive, but it can look really amazing. You could get a wig if you really want that 'Bernice bobs her hair' look. Cheap wigs are fun, though if you're going to work, you'll probably want the natural looking expensive stuff (i.e. no 'bin wigs'). If you work at it and really know what you're doing, you can make them look (almost) real. Wigs are somewhat uncomfortable, especially in the summer. It's basically like wearing a really big wool hat with a number of pins holding your hair in check. I have two wigs,one cost me six dollars, and the other about thirty. The six dollar one is bad. Period. The thirty dollar one isn't bad style wise, but looks and feels like fake Barbie hair. I happen to like that sort of thing-- and if you do too, I would recommend the purchase of a fine, unnatural looking wig by Manic Panic such as the one I have. It only requires about fifteen minutes to pin up my curls and I'm ready to go, with fake ultra-straight hair! back to part one |
|
Home |