How to: Get an Awesome Haircut

Wednesday, September 14, 2011


My new hair cut and color! AND I'm smiling with me teeth! It's a Festivus miracle! I still think I look like a doof but the hair looks good!

So I finally went and I had my hair done yesterday. After three hours in the chair I'm super happy with the transformation, although it's taking some major time to get used to. I've never had hair this light EVER. I told my hairdresser that I've associated myself so long with being a brunette that having blond hair has thrown me off kilter. Am I more fun yet!?

Anyway, while I was talking for THREE HOURS with my main hair girl, Patti, we started discussing what makes a good client and how to get what you want from your hairdresser and I picked up some awesome tips that you'll want to use the next time you head to get a haircut.

I get the worst anxiety before getting my hair done. Like, I feel like I'm going to throw up. I usually want some drastic change and then I sit and stress over how it'll look and what will I do if it doesn't look good and all the rest of it. Most of the world is stressing over an economic crisis right now. Me? WILL MY HAIR BE OK?? So I feel like the better prepared you are for a hair appointment, the better off you'll be with the pregame anxiety.

1) Get a good hairdresser. I never know whether to call them stylists or dressers or what, but whatever you call her, trust her with your life. Or your hair. Same thing. When I lived at home I had an AWFUL hairdresser, only I didn't know she was awful. Her name was like, Lyyza or something stripperish like that and she always wanted to talk about her ex-husband and she NEVER listened to what I wanted. I always came home panicked because she had totally given me bangs or cut too much off or something else that made me freak out.

Since I moved here I've had the same hairdresser for eight years. She lives across the street from me, which is super convenient and she listens much better than my old one. I never leave there thinking OMG WHAT DID SHE DO? It might take a few tries, but if you have a bad haircut or feel like she's not listening to you, don't go back. I kept my crappy hairdresser for like, four years. WHY.

2) Bring pictures. My hairdresser said this was a must. Ambiguously gesturing to your hair while saying things like "Maybe a few inches off but like, layers here and some length over here" is confusing and a recipe for disaster. Scour the web for a few different pictures. I sometimes bring two or three and point out elements that I like from each one, like the banks from one picture but the layers from another. A good hairstylist will be able to interpret what you want with a better idea of what you'd like the outcome to be.

3) Be realistic. Just because you tell your hairdresser you want a Jennifer Aniston cut doesn't mean you'll walk out of there literally looking like Jennifer Aniston. A hairstyle needs to be adjusted for your hair type, length and color, so it's better to have a general ideal of the style you want, rather than perfectly copying someone else's. You'll end up disappointed.

4) Give specific parameters when it comes to color. I really wanted to go lighter but I didn't want it to wash me out. I decided on an ashy blond because I have natural ash brown hair. So I asked specifically for a cooler-toned ash blond, instead of just asking to go lighter. I'm super particular about my color so it was helpful to tell my hairdresser the basic tone I wanted to go for so I didn't end up surprised with like, a strawberry blond.

5) Give your hairdresser a little credit. She's trained and as long as you've done your homework, a good one. While I had a general idea of what I wanted my hair to look like, I have no idea about how anything is actually accomplished. Let your hairdresser be creative and do her work and you'll be happier with the result. Unless you're a stylist yourself, lay off a little. Once you've given the proper parameters, let her do her thing.

6) Ask for advice on how to style and care for your hair once you leave the salon. This is imperative, because you'll leave there with the perfect blowout and after two days it'll be flat and weird and you'll think you have a difficult cut. Instead, watch your stylist as she styles your hair and ask about the products she's using. My hairdresser told me yesterday that lighter, bleached hair curls faster so I should dial down my heated tools. I had no idea! So glad she told me, because that'll make my cut and color last so much longer. And not light on fire. Which is important.

7) Speak up. Once I didn't communicate what I wanted very well and I wasn't in love with the cut I got. After going home I whined about it to my husband and finally hung my head in shame to call my hairdresser for a redo. She was mostly just mortified I didn't say anything while I was actually there. She had me come over that minute and gave me exactly what I wanted after I explained it better.

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to get exactly what you want at the hairdresser's. Seriously, have a loving, communicative relationship with two people in your life: Your spouse and your hairdresser.

Everyone's happy!

15 comments:

Kate said...

Some of us prefer the term "Beauty Operator." :)

Anonymous said...

You look awesome! You don't look like a doof at all!

I definitely need to keep these tips in mind. Last time I got my hair cut (which was almost a year ago), I told my super sleek, super chic hairstylist that I wanted a bob with a very slight angle that I could loosely tousle (think Rachel McAdams in State of Play), and that I definitely didn't wanna look like T-Boz. Guess who I came out looking like? Yep. She might as well have buzzed the back, she cut it so short, and I could have cut people with the sharp angles in the front. Got hassled for like a month by my husband's guy-friends. And all my girlfriends pretended to like it, but I knew better.

On a related note, it's funny how cuts that look stylish on europeans and skinny hairstylists, immediately look like a "mom cut" when put on a woman who's carrying around two under two. I'll be bringing pictures next time. Oh, and I'll be using a different stylist.

Anyway, sorry for such a long comment... I'm still bitter.

Jae said...

Hahaha Kate, I loled. I'm like what the heck do I call these people? Let's just use every name possible in one blog post.

Naomi OMG yes! Like the Victoria Beckham? It looks so hot on her, but on certain people it looks so very suburban... uh... not that that's bad or anything.

Bad haircuts make me want to cry myself to sleep, no joke. That's why I get such bad anxiety beforehand!

Natalie said...

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this post! I am loving your new color! I'm still not brave enough to try lighter...maybe I'll buckle down and get the guts now that I have an AMAZING hairdresser! {FINALLY!!!}

Amen to EVERYTHING you said! I had a not so fun experience, too! I blogged about it here:

http://natsprat.blogspot.com/2008/06/yesterday-we-were-at-mall-and-we-were.html

Oh how I love your blog. :)

Diamond said...

Your post made me think of Russian Dolls on Lifetime last week.
Anastasia went OFF on the stylist, screaming for her friends about how hideous her hair would look because the girl had no clue what she was doing. Yet, her hair turned out just as she wanted. She ended up losing a Calendar Girl spot because the salon was one of the sponsors.

bequi said...

I used to go to a salon because it was cheap. And they generally did what I wanted, and I'm not too picky about my hair so I was like, "Whatev. I'll keep going." But one day I went and I told the hair dresser what I wanted (long layers, with a rounded front) and she cut my hair straight across on the bottom. I explained again that I wanted the front to round off toward the back (I promise I explained better than this) and she said, "No. I like it like this. If you don't like it in a couple days, come back and I'll do it how you want." I never went back to that salon again, even though other stylists had cut my hair perfectly fine before.

Also, my mom has a stylist who she LOVES, but I think always makes her look like a clown. I mean, he dyed her eyebrows red to match the red hair he dyed that did NOT go with her skin tone! How do you break the news to someone that they need to switch stylists?! We've been trying to tell her for years that her skin tone has changed since she was a teenager, but she keeps trying to recapture her old color, which just doesn't look good on her anymore.

Jenna said...

Great advice. Oh how I need a haircut. And color. Thanks for reminding me.

And FTR, I just call mine my "hair girl."

Jae said...

Natalie, that might have been the best blog post ever... I am dying to see a picture now!!

Oh haircuts are slippery slope... when they're good, they're great. When they're bad you want to wear a hat for the rest of your life. I've totally been there before.

No joke, I asked my hairdresser yesterday if my eyebrows would match me new hair lol. I felt so dumb.

Jae said...

Ahem... I mean hair girl... lol.

Nathaly Blalock said...

Your hair looks so good! I was supposed to cut mine off today but had to reschedule for next Wed. I was all geared up for a big change, so I'm disappointed that now I have another week to talk myself out of it and then convince myself again. You can see on my fb photography profile pic how ridiculously long it is right now. Anyway, totally sent this post to my mom who is THE WORST at expecting every hairdresser to know how to read minds. I don't think she's been happy with a haircut for more than 2 days (the number of days her blowout lasts) in her whole life.

Carolyn said...

Love this post! I have been dying to cut my hair for a while, since it's been 6 months since last cut and it's now long and out of control. The problem is *I* have no idea what I want and what would look good. I always think things look cute on others but am never sure if I can actually pull it off. Sigh. But I am also ready for a change. I'll just have to do something! lol

Jae said...

Nat your long hair is sooooo pretty but I get what you mean with a change. I got to the point where I just didn't want to even deal with it anymore.

LOL I've tried to use those digital makeover things to see what I would look like with certain hairstyles but all they do is make me look like I have a ginormous face.

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