Where's Kyan when you need him?
Nov. 10th, 2003 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrik(for the ref.: Kyan)
As much as I hate to admit it, it's time for change. I'm currently hunting around for information on this unknown world of 'hair stylists'. Makes me twitchy to even think about. Advice here would be appreciated.
I got plain-jane normal haircuts all throughout my youth; anything from standard-short to 'put a bowl on his head and cut around it'. As a farm-kid I didn't really mind. It wasn't until the last few years of high school that I started letting it grow out. The key thing here is that my hair grows like a weed: fast and thick. "Letting it grow long" is a matter of months, not years. Also, if I didn't do a lot to keep it thinned out it would get uncomfortable, especially in the summer heat.
Somewhere just about my last year of high school (maybe a little earlier, I don't recall), I had the local barbershop simply razor off part of the sides. It was an experiment and I was amazingly embarrassed about it. The cut was half-way to a punk-80's look and was less a style and more of an 'accident with a razor'. I quickly let it grow back out. Within a year it'd grown below my shoulders and I looked the proper College Hippie up there at Ferris State University. Thanks to a strange mood and having nothing else to do, I sought out a local haircut place and had them give me a mohawk. Wimping out, I had them leave 1/4" on the sides instead of going to the scalp, but it was still pretty blatant. The intention was to wear it that way for a week or so to amuse my friends and then buzz the rest off back into some kinda standard-boring cut.
The turning point was when I got a strange look from my cinematography professor and thought he Highly Disapproved(tm)... so I went up to him after class to apologize for wearing such an outlandish cut in his classroom. I really respected the guy, y'see. He laughed it off and told me that not only did it look decent on me, but he was surprised it took me that long to try something punky or original. It was college, after all. The reaction really charged me up and from that point on started playing more openly with funky hairstyles.
Since then I've tried a number of things, but all on a similar theme. It's been as long as the top of my backside (just about 'oops I sat on my hair' length) and I've chrome-dome'd it twice. I've taken the sides and tied in a few braids with things in 'em and I've even had all my head up in braids in a more urban style. Once it was bleached blond... another time colored a funky purple-red. Still, no matter the variations, I invariably let it grow back to what it still is today: an oversized mohawk. Instead of just a sharkfin of hair, it's a good 3-4" wide strip. When it falls to the sides it's hard to tell the sides are shaved, but if I tie it back or (rarely) spike it up with nasty chemicals it's really blatant. Each time that I've cut it all off to let it grow I've saved at least one braid... they're pretty huge. It's kind of cool to see how my hair color has changed over the years from a copper-wire red to a brownish red.
There's three main reasons for the mohawk-style. Most importantly, the males of my family are cursed with Charlie Brown heads: big and round. Buying a hat is anywhere from a challenge to an impossibility. Cutting the sides off helps negate the visual effect of that and so I don't look like such a round-head. For two, my hair gets so thick that losing the sides means what's left is easy to care for and doesn't overheat or over-tangle. The last one is at once the most important and the one I admit to the least: yes, it's definately an expression of liking a horse-like look. When it's just the right length and I can get it to stand up like a Trojan-helmet, I really like it. It's one part of my whole anthro-fan thing that I'll admit to carrying around in daily life. I'm also the first one to admit that it's poorly executed and almost completely fails to give that impression to anybody who looks at my haircut.
Mostly they just think "Weird." I'm fine with that.
I've been terrible about photo-documenting my hair when it's in the modes I like. Instead I only have a few photos that are so-so:
Beads on side This was at last year's FC. The hair was way too bushy and the sides were too long, so the effect was pretty poor.
Sides shaved A good example of what it looks like with the hair held up, most of the time.
Floofy This is one of the few shots I like. When the hair isn't held back and it's the right length, it falls to the sides and looks mildly stylish without being too punk-ish or hippy-like.
So... the point of all this? Well, there are Reasons Afoot that make me want to get slightly more business-like in presentation and dress. They're good reasons, mind you, and not some bossman telling me to do this. I'm going to pick up some business casual clothes for some possible overseas meetings and trim up the mane. I'm loathe to loose a year's worth of growth. It's down below my shoulder blades now... but I know all too well it'll grow back if I want it to.
I need to go find an actual hair stylist and have them look me over and make a judgement call on a new style. I still want something that stands out as original or at least not bland-business-boring; just not the same old mohawk I've had since 1987 or so. For the last decade my sisters have cut my hair with nothing but an electric razor, and prior to that my ladyfriends out at Bresa Del Rio (a horse ranch I did volunteer work at) would just buzz my head with the horse-clippers. So the idea of finding a stylist and getting consulting on a hairstyle is just downright foreign to me.
My sisters didn't have any real suggestions, so I asked the cool receptionist-gal here at the office. She handed me a card for her stylist and told me to give her a call. This just feels all strange. I'm hoping there's some way to keep the mane-liking side of me satisfied while still doing something more reasonable.
For any of you who can offer advice, be it about how to pick a stylist, what kind of haircut would look good on me or even "here's how to talk stylist-speak so they get the right idea", please, do! I could use any help my friends have to give. :)
As much as I hate to admit it, it's time for change. I'm currently hunting around for information on this unknown world of 'hair stylists'. Makes me twitchy to even think about. Advice here would be appreciated.
I got plain-jane normal haircuts all throughout my youth; anything from standard-short to 'put a bowl on his head and cut around it'. As a farm-kid I didn't really mind. It wasn't until the last few years of high school that I started letting it grow out. The key thing here is that my hair grows like a weed: fast and thick. "Letting it grow long" is a matter of months, not years. Also, if I didn't do a lot to keep it thinned out it would get uncomfortable, especially in the summer heat.
Somewhere just about my last year of high school (maybe a little earlier, I don't recall), I had the local barbershop simply razor off part of the sides. It was an experiment and I was amazingly embarrassed about it. The cut was half-way to a punk-80's look and was less a style and more of an 'accident with a razor'. I quickly let it grow back out. Within a year it'd grown below my shoulders and I looked the proper College Hippie up there at Ferris State University. Thanks to a strange mood and having nothing else to do, I sought out a local haircut place and had them give me a mohawk. Wimping out, I had them leave 1/4" on the sides instead of going to the scalp, but it was still pretty blatant. The intention was to wear it that way for a week or so to amuse my friends and then buzz the rest off back into some kinda standard-boring cut.
The turning point was when I got a strange look from my cinematography professor and thought he Highly Disapproved(tm)... so I went up to him after class to apologize for wearing such an outlandish cut in his classroom. I really respected the guy, y'see. He laughed it off and told me that not only did it look decent on me, but he was surprised it took me that long to try something punky or original. It was college, after all. The reaction really charged me up and from that point on started playing more openly with funky hairstyles.
Since then I've tried a number of things, but all on a similar theme. It's been as long as the top of my backside (just about 'oops I sat on my hair' length) and I've chrome-dome'd it twice. I've taken the sides and tied in a few braids with things in 'em and I've even had all my head up in braids in a more urban style. Once it was bleached blond... another time colored a funky purple-red. Still, no matter the variations, I invariably let it grow back to what it still is today: an oversized mohawk. Instead of just a sharkfin of hair, it's a good 3-4" wide strip. When it falls to the sides it's hard to tell the sides are shaved, but if I tie it back or (rarely) spike it up with nasty chemicals it's really blatant. Each time that I've cut it all off to let it grow I've saved at least one braid... they're pretty huge. It's kind of cool to see how my hair color has changed over the years from a copper-wire red to a brownish red.
There's three main reasons for the mohawk-style. Most importantly, the males of my family are cursed with Charlie Brown heads: big and round. Buying a hat is anywhere from a challenge to an impossibility. Cutting the sides off helps negate the visual effect of that and so I don't look like such a round-head. For two, my hair gets so thick that losing the sides means what's left is easy to care for and doesn't overheat or over-tangle. The last one is at once the most important and the one I admit to the least: yes, it's definately an expression of liking a horse-like look. When it's just the right length and I can get it to stand up like a Trojan-helmet, I really like it. It's one part of my whole anthro-fan thing that I'll admit to carrying around in daily life. I'm also the first one to admit that it's poorly executed and almost completely fails to give that impression to anybody who looks at my haircut.
Mostly they just think "Weird." I'm fine with that.
I've been terrible about photo-documenting my hair when it's in the modes I like. Instead I only have a few photos that are so-so:
Beads on side This was at last year's FC. The hair was way too bushy and the sides were too long, so the effect was pretty poor.
Sides shaved A good example of what it looks like with the hair held up, most of the time.
Floofy This is one of the few shots I like. When the hair isn't held back and it's the right length, it falls to the sides and looks mildly stylish without being too punk-ish or hippy-like.
So... the point of all this? Well, there are Reasons Afoot that make me want to get slightly more business-like in presentation and dress. They're good reasons, mind you, and not some bossman telling me to do this. I'm going to pick up some business casual clothes for some possible overseas meetings and trim up the mane. I'm loathe to loose a year's worth of growth. It's down below my shoulder blades now... but I know all too well it'll grow back if I want it to.
I need to go find an actual hair stylist and have them look me over and make a judgement call on a new style. I still want something that stands out as original or at least not bland-business-boring; just not the same old mohawk I've had since 1987 or so. For the last decade my sisters have cut my hair with nothing but an electric razor, and prior to that my ladyfriends out at Bresa Del Rio (a horse ranch I did volunteer work at) would just buzz my head with the horse-clippers. So the idea of finding a stylist and getting consulting on a hairstyle is just downright foreign to me.
My sisters didn't have any real suggestions, so I asked the cool receptionist-gal here at the office. She handed me a card for her stylist and told me to give her a call. This just feels all strange. I'm hoping there's some way to keep the mane-liking side of me satisfied while still doing something more reasonable.
For any of you who can offer advice, be it about how to pick a stylist, what kind of haircut would look good on me or even "here's how to talk stylist-speak so they get the right idea", please, do! I could use any help my friends have to give. :)
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 04:07 pm (UTC)Don't lose the facial hair!!!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 04:12 pm (UTC)FYI -- I already lost it, a few months ago. As of about two weeks ago now, I'm growing it back, 'cause I miss it. So I'll have a proper thin-trimmed beard again soon.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 04:17 pm (UTC)'cause… you're cute with that beard ^_^;
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 04:18 pm (UTC)It was those females wasn't it?
There always trying to get me to shave mine...
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 04:18 pm (UTC)But whatever you come up with, document it from several angles and configurations in pictures. Whoever the SECOND person to cut your hair is will thank you.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 05:19 pm (UTC)I don't really have any suggestion. I kind of like your hair the way it is. I'm not sure how long men's hair translates into the professional realm. The only thing I can think of is having all of your hair slicked back. *shrugs*
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 06:05 pm (UTC)The thing you want to do, I think, Tug, is get something that is short enough to be manageable but not so short as to be unworkable with 'product' (sorry, obligatory QE joke). *grin* IMHO, what works best for you is the MIB look -- close-crop, make it work with sunglasses, and you have a margin of error so you don't have to keep trimming it back every few weeks.
Don't get me wrong; I'm a poster child for long hair, and I like the way yours looks right now. But where I'm in a position to ignore The Powers That Be on styling, it sounds like you aren't.
-Traveller
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 06:10 pm (UTC)What I'm hoping for is some way to be able to keep the dangly-minibraids with a few things in them without having the whole mohawky look. I'm glad to hear some folks like it... I was always worried most folks found it kind of 'enh' and put up with it.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-10 11:00 pm (UTC)However, I have noticed this trend: The stylist's own hair is a good indicator of what styles they like to recommend for people. Find a stylist with hair you like, and if you don't like the cut they give you, ask for their stylist.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-11 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-11 06:01 am (UTC)I thought the FC one was the most interesting. Unfortunately, no real helpfull suggestions, I have no idea how to cut my hair either. MIB stylin' might be a way to go. Ask
This is giong to sound sexist, but...
Date: 2003-11-11 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-11 05:41 pm (UTC)1. As other people have noted--keep the beard. Not only does it look good on you, but since one of your big concerns is that you're trying to slim the appearance of your face, the thinline cut of the beard you prefer does a good job of bringing the lines of your face in.
2. In selecting a cut, I think you have the right idea in having the sides cut short. However, in going for a more 'business-proper' cut of hairstyle, don't discount that the top can be left reasonably short as well--just not as short as the sides. If cut to allow the top to have more volume (either by 'products' or by just a simple blowdrying), it has the same effect as your beard--it lengthens the face.
3. To get more volume in your haircut, you can ask a stylist about 'layering' your hair--this just means that it won't all be cut the same length, but the lengths staggered, allowing the hairs to not weigh each other down and thus lay flat. This will be more of a question of if you like using various hair products to get lift in your hair or to do it au naturel.
I do have a hairstylist I'd like to recommend, but I'm not sure if in a LJ post is the right place to give out names/phone numbers/addresses. I'll try getting in touch with you to talk to you about it.
It's not the style, it's the care...
Date: 2003-11-12 01:17 pm (UTC)So, in short, for a professional look, take care of your hair, no matter how it's cut.