I sit in the chair and stare in the mirror and hope against hope that the person I am paying will turn out to be a sorcerer, instead of a person with scissors.
I've gone clutching pictures of nubile young celebrities, in hopes that I can pay to be transformed into a Hollywood Starlet with a few well-placed snips. I've tried turning myself over to the care and artistic vision of the professional. Hoping all that is required is a clearer vision to transform me into someone else.
I've gone to fancy award-winning salons, and budget hair dressers.
I always come out looking like me. But with stiffer hair. No taller, no thinner, no younger.
It usually sets me back about $100.00 with the cut, style and occasional highlights.
Sometimes I spend days researching to find just the right hairstyle. Sometimes I just show up there on a whim, after catching sight of myself looking bedraggled in an elevator mirror.
I do this about 5 times a year. Plus the home dye kits, highlights, gel, mousse and other products, shampoo and conditioner, and a couple of hairstyle magazines. All in all, I spend about $900.00 a year on my hair plus another $600.00 or so on the rest of the family.
Or at least I used to.
This year I'm taking $1200.00 of my haircutting money and putting it to better use.
A Salon Style Cut May Be Easier Than You Think
Which Beauty Products Does Your Hair Really Need?
I Stopped Dying My Hair
OK, so now my hair was less frizzy and damaged from the pool and the sun, since I'd stopped stripping it with detergents. But the colour was still looking processed because I was dying it all the time to cover the grey.
So I decided five months ago to stop dyeing it.
My natural colour is somewhere between field mouse and bark.... at least that's how I remember it, though I've been dying it so long it's hard to tell. I started in my twenties.
I always wanted something more dramatic. I'd watch Aeon Flux or that girl from the 5th Element and rush out to dye my hair fire engine red or jet black or platinum blond.
The result? My complexion usually looked pale in comparison to the new unnaturally vivid hair. Then after a few weeks it would start looking dull or brassy. The roots would start to show.
In reality the died colour is only better for about a week before it starts to turn...orange. And I got trapped into the cycle because of the roots. But now I'm biting the bullet and letting it grow out.
And I'm discovering that my natural colour suits my skin tone, and the sun brings out natural highlights.
I Started Cutting My Children's Hair
I went out last month and bought a pair of clippers and used it to crop my son's and my husband's hair short. The clipper cost me less that the price of two haircuts, and my son loves it. He's 4, and thrilled to have the same hair as daddy. He thinks being able to towel-dry it in 2 seconds is magic, and shows off like it's a newly acquired skill.
Also, He no longer has to worry when they send home notices about lice outbreaks at school.
With their new cropped locks, they've both jumped on the no-shampoo bandwagon.
I Let My Husband Cut My Hair
I have pin straight hair. My daughter has blond curls like an angel.
It always makes me smile to hear her complain about her natural curls, remembering the hours and dollars I spent trying to get mine to curl. Perms. Velcro rollers. Curling irons. Hot rollers.
Today We have matching hairstyles. A blunt-cut bob, angled downwards toward the front. But because we have totally different hair, the cut suits each of us in our own way. Hers floats around her cherub face like a saucy blond cloud, hig at the back, with ringlets at the nape. Mine hangs like a curtain, cuts sharply forward framing my features.
My husband cuts it for both of us with a pair of scissors that came as a free gift with the clippers he bought for himself.
For a basic description of how to cut this style, see the link below:
So, that's about $1200.00 a year I'll be saving. I'll put $600.00 of it away for a rainy day, and treat myself to something with the other $600.00
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