Update: One year in Hair

As you may (not) recall, my 2007 new year's resolution was to spend one year experiment-ing with my hair.

I consulted with four different stylists/salons and just didn't get moving forward with any of them for one reason or another.

A month or so ago I was having dinner (Japanese) when I spotted two women at a nearby table. The woman facing me had dark hair like mine, but she also had a great color of blond (a good color of blond is hard to come by).

Well, I figured I didn't have anything to lose, so I approached her and asked if she was local (there are so many tourists around here you can't assume, she could have gone to someone in another country.) Hesitantly she said "yes", so I asked where she got her hair done.

She was super friendly, I'd tell you her name except that it's pretty distinctive and I didn't get her permission, she smiled and spoke of a newer, smallish salon around the corner and said they're really good and reasonably priced as well. Just my kind of place!

I waited a couple of weeks then called to schedule a consultation, which we had yesterday. We spent a good amount of time talking about my hair, my expectation, the color, the cut, the style, and she gave me some really great suggestions. I feel very comfortable that we're on the same wavelength about starting out slow. And she wants to keep my hair long for now - which is great. I am a little nervous about the "thinning" out - it's gotten quite thin on its own over the last couple of years (you know what I mean, ladies) and the thought of losing even more volume is scary.

We had a pretty interesting conversation about how people look at hair service. How some folks are simply looking for a change, some folks want to find the "perfect" style, cut or color they can keep forever, and for some people (like her) it's been all about the journey. Like what you learn about yourself and others when you do different things with your hair. To tell you the truth, it was pretty profound so I am going to ask if she'll write about that as well as maybe some other comments.

One last example, it was interesting how she talked about how color, cut and style need to look "lived-in". How too bright, too linear, too "new" was not attractive to her. I gotta tell you, I agree - it's part of how people "own" a look. Anything can look great so long as the wearer owns it. You know, feels good and has pride.

So anyway, I will be taking pics, I told her all about this blog and that I wanted to document things. She's not intimidated at all and gave me permission to use her name and identify the salon. I'll send an email with links so she can take a look. If she still agrees, I'll post all.

--Shella