Hair here and there, and everywhere!
For all of my frivolous and spendthrift ways, there is one instance (that I can think of off the top of my head) where the norm doesn't apply: haircuts. I absolutely refuse to believe that a good and proper women's haircut should cost any more than $60, including tip. Why? All they're doing is removing hair from your head, a process which you'll have to repeat in 2-3 months time. People like Sally Hershberger who charge upwards of $600 for a haircut are just ridiculous. The people who pay for those haircuts - well, I'm not even going to begin. I grant you that a good haircut does make all the difference in the world, but really. $600 will buy you a pair of heels and a pair of ballet flats at Holly Would. (There used to be a time when their shoes were cheaper than Sigerson Morrison! Ah, the good ol' days.)
But that does not mean that I frequent chains like Fantastic Sam's and Supercuts to get my hair cut. Please. Those places give the OCD in me chills. No. There are a perfectly good number of salons that will do the deed. And if you're in a large city like New York or LA - you're in luck. Big fancy salons will have training schools where you can get your hair cut by a student for a fraction of the price. Plus (and I know this is wrong, that you're supposed to stick with one person who will get to learn your hair, but I also have a slight case of ADD), the students rotate frequently, so you can get a different person cutting your hair each time.
Take, for instance, the Aveda Institute located in SoHo in New York. I used to get my hair cut here all the time, for the bargain price of $15, which included a shampoo using lovely-smelling Aveda products. The studio was more like a very large loft space, with lots of room for the instructors to roam around to watch their students and in case anyone had any questions, so that no mistakes would be made. Two people here stick out vividly in my mind. There was the one who oohed and aahed over my hair, and said that she absolutely adored cutting long layers, and she said never to colour my hair because its colour was so lovely, and that she wanted to move out to LA one day and work in a salon out there... and then she asked if I knew that my hair was ever-so-slightly thinning at one temple. Way to kill the glorious buzz of flattery. Then there was the other one, who even though she was supposed to be graduating in 2 weeks, wasn't really quite sure how to cut long layers. Thankfully the instructor was there to remind her, and I left with a perfectly fine haircut.
But then, I actually found a salon in Charlottesville with a hairstylist whom I adored so much that I went back to her repeatedly! Her name is Marlo, and she's not afraid to use a curling iron to style my hair. Ah, the good ol' South, where hair with volume is still in. Crankypants goes to her also, and she is always telling him how beautiful and smart I am, and how lucky he is to have me. She tells me that I always look so put together and that he looks so "beachy" all the time. Heehee. This might be one large reason why I love her. That, and she is the first person to fully understand what I want done with my hair, without having me to say more than, "uh, I don't know, clean the layers and add some movement?" And when I leave with loose bouncing waves (formed by a lovely large-barreled curling iron) a la those 50s movie stars, I couldn't be happier. And just-washed, the haircut is pretty perfect too.
However, I'm in LA for the summer, far far away from Marlo and her Southern charm, and I desperately needed a haircut. Was I in luck! The Vidal Sassoon Institute is located in Santa Monica, and haircuts there are only $19 on weekdays! So I left work early yesterday to check it out.
Two-and-a-half hours later (remember, they're students, they're slow - plus, I like it when people play with my hair, and I had nowhere to be, so it was fine), I left with a lovely hairdo, exactly the same as my old one but precisely 2 inches shorter, as I had requested. The place was so much hipper than I am - everyone there had punky and edgy haircuts, and I was worried that they'd make fun of my conservative cut - but hey, they'll meet plenty of people like me out in the real world. And my wallet was only $29 lighter (she spent so much time, I felt bad. Plus, I would have tipped that much for a decent $50 haircut). My only quibble is that apparently they're not allowed to use curling irons there (forgot that Vidal Sassoon was all about the sleekness of hair), so I had to go home to handle that.
Since I'd been threatening the last couple of weeks that I was going to have my hair cut so that it was no longer than a chin-length bob, or better yet, I was going to shave all of it off (it's currently, post-haircut, about 3 inches past my shoulders), crankypants was in a very nervous state until I met him for dinner, whereby he expelled a huge sigh of relief when he saw that I hadn't done anything drastic. What a weenie. Women's hair their sign of fertility and sexuality, my ass.
But that does not mean that I frequent chains like Fantastic Sam's and Supercuts to get my hair cut. Please. Those places give the OCD in me chills. No. There are a perfectly good number of salons that will do the deed. And if you're in a large city like New York or LA - you're in luck. Big fancy salons will have training schools where you can get your hair cut by a student for a fraction of the price. Plus (and I know this is wrong, that you're supposed to stick with one person who will get to learn your hair, but I also have a slight case of ADD), the students rotate frequently, so you can get a different person cutting your hair each time.
Take, for instance, the Aveda Institute located in SoHo in New York. I used to get my hair cut here all the time, for the bargain price of $15, which included a shampoo using lovely-smelling Aveda products. The studio was more like a very large loft space, with lots of room for the instructors to roam around to watch their students and in case anyone had any questions, so that no mistakes would be made. Two people here stick out vividly in my mind. There was the one who oohed and aahed over my hair, and said that she absolutely adored cutting long layers, and she said never to colour my hair because its colour was so lovely, and that she wanted to move out to LA one day and work in a salon out there... and then she asked if I knew that my hair was ever-so-slightly thinning at one temple. Way to kill the glorious buzz of flattery. Then there was the other one, who even though she was supposed to be graduating in 2 weeks, wasn't really quite sure how to cut long layers. Thankfully the instructor was there to remind her, and I left with a perfectly fine haircut.
But then, I actually found a salon in Charlottesville with a hairstylist whom I adored so much that I went back to her repeatedly! Her name is Marlo, and she's not afraid to use a curling iron to style my hair. Ah, the good ol' South, where hair with volume is still in. Crankypants goes to her also, and she is always telling him how beautiful and smart I am, and how lucky he is to have me. She tells me that I always look so put together and that he looks so "beachy" all the time. Heehee. This might be one large reason why I love her. That, and she is the first person to fully understand what I want done with my hair, without having me to say more than, "uh, I don't know, clean the layers and add some movement?" And when I leave with loose bouncing waves (formed by a lovely large-barreled curling iron) a la those 50s movie stars, I couldn't be happier. And just-washed, the haircut is pretty perfect too.
However, I'm in LA for the summer, far far away from Marlo and her Southern charm, and I desperately needed a haircut. Was I in luck! The Vidal Sassoon Institute is located in Santa Monica, and haircuts there are only $19 on weekdays! So I left work early yesterday to check it out.
Two-and-a-half hours later (remember, they're students, they're slow - plus, I like it when people play with my hair, and I had nowhere to be, so it was fine), I left with a lovely hairdo, exactly the same as my old one but precisely 2 inches shorter, as I had requested. The place was so much hipper than I am - everyone there had punky and edgy haircuts, and I was worried that they'd make fun of my conservative cut - but hey, they'll meet plenty of people like me out in the real world. And my wallet was only $29 lighter (she spent so much time, I felt bad. Plus, I would have tipped that much for a decent $50 haircut). My only quibble is that apparently they're not allowed to use curling irons there (forgot that Vidal Sassoon was all about the sleekness of hair), so I had to go home to handle that.
Since I'd been threatening the last couple of weeks that I was going to have my hair cut so that it was no longer than a chin-length bob, or better yet, I was going to shave all of it off (it's currently, post-haircut, about 3 inches past my shoulders), crankypants was in a very nervous state until I met him for dinner, whereby he expelled a huge sigh of relief when he saw that I hadn't done anything drastic. What a weenie. Women's hair their sign of fertility and sexuality, my ass.
posted at 10:27
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