I was born with fine, super blonde hair. Loved the color from day one, except for a period of time I decided I wanted to be native American with long dark braids. However, the fine part always bothered me.
I grew up towards the end of the hippie era. Everyone around me had long luscious locks that they braided or let flow like a wild crown. Sometimes flowers were added as a decoration - the epitome of the flower child.
In high school I did my best to grown my fine locks as long as possible. The best I could get was about two inches below my shoulders. Being fine meant it didn't have any natural volume. It would lay flat and limp unless I curled it. First that meant sleeping in big, scratchy bottle brush curlers. They weren't easy to sleep on, but gave a bit of lift and soft wave that lasted until maybe 11 a.m. Jeez! What was I thinking?
Along the way I discovered perms - first the Tony home perms, and then the professional salon one. Perms were touted as the perfect answer for fine limp hair and in many ways it was when it was fresh. I loved a fresh perm. My hair had lift and volume finally. I could do my hair in the morning and it would last further into the day. It was also easier to put up for dance as there were no limp strands to fall out.
As always there was a downside. As it grew out, the roots at the top were still fine and limp. My hair would flatten on top from the part outward, then stick out curly on the sides. It was so depressing. There was an old cartoon character with hair like that (can't seem to remember which). And it made it hard to style with a couple inches of flat limp hair on the top, then the rest permed curls.
I ended up with a fuzz ball of overpermed hair on top of my head that weirdly worked. What I did with it was part it on one side, then do a larger French roll on the wider side and a smaller French roll on the narrower side. This looked AMAZING on me. Take them out and I had a puffy head of fried hair. but put them in and everyone said, "Why didn't you start doing your hair this way before?"
So I know the hair style that works fabulous on me, well at least it did in my 30's, but frying my hair regularly wasn't a great idea. Without a major perm, I have hair that won't work in that style. Eventually I gave up and went short. My current stylist also encouraged me to embrace styles that worked with my hair as it is instead of trying to make it do things that it didn't have the DNA for. I turned my hair over to him as it made so much sense and have never looked back.
Short hair has proven easy to take care of and with the right stylist, can be changeable and oh so edgy. I love it for the most part. What I don't love is that the cut is all important and it grows out way too quickly. Six weeks is the standard they throw around but, especially with the pandemic, I have found myself stretching out the gap between cuts from eight to even twelve weeks. And that makes me ripe for a definitely "YAK-ish" look.
That is where I am today. Next week my stylist will again work his magic and I will look fabulous! He has made me a believer in the power of the right cut. But in my dreams, I still remember those double French rolls and wish I had a mane of long, beautiful, thick hair in absolutely any color.
Comments
Post a Comment