hairstyles

Beauty Coach: Hate Your Haircut?

February 18, 2010 at 8:42 pm , by Erica Metzger

Have you ever left the hair salon looking worse than when you first walked in? (I know I certainly have, and more times than I’d care to admit.) It’s certainly cathartic to curse out the stylist in your head, but here’s the thing: a bad haircut isn’t entirely the fault of the person wielding the scissors. It’s yours, too. Okay, now before you throw your heaviest tube of styling gel at me, let me explain why that’s a good thing. You–yes, you in the chair–have some control of the situation. The more ownership you take, the better your chances of getting the cut you want. The times I’ve been most disappointed over my haircut are usually when I was impulsive or didn’t communicate my expectations.

This story is a good example:

A friend of mine, we’ll call her Ann, needs a haircut and wants a change of scene from her regular salon. Ann decides to try the salon her friend Beth goes to and shows up there in person, asking for an appointment with Beth’s regular stylist.

Unfortunately, Beth’s stylist is out that day so Ann agrees to see the next available stylist–let’s call him Random Dude. During her consultation with Random Dude, Ann says that she doesn’t mind going shorter, as long as the new cut is easy to style. 40 minutes later, a remorseful Ann walks out of the salon with a shaggy, layered bob that just doesn’t feel like her and also turns out to be anything but easy to style.

For the next few days Ann struggles to style her new cut, buying new products, headbands and even an expensive flat iron. After a week of frustration, Ann just wants to fix her hair and considers everything from getting a new haircut to fix the layers, long hair extensions like Kate Gosselin’s to a Brazilian straightening treatment so she won’t have to spend 30 minutes every morning smoothing out her strands.

Where did Ann go wrong? Let me know what you think! And what do you think she should do next? I advised her to call the salon and ask for a free styling lesson before she does anything drastic.

Photo by Fernando Milani

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Cheat Sheet: 5 Things You Missed While Living Your Life

October 9, 2009 at 5:04 pm , by Arpita Joshi

1. Gourmet magazine will be shut down – and so will 3 others at Conde Nast Publications.

Are you a fan of the epic food magazine? Conde Nast reported losses in the company and announced that it’s closing Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride magazines. Foodies everywhere were shocked and dismayed, especially on Twitter – where Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Riechl herself even tweeted, “We’re all stunned, sad.”

2. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The internet is in a flurry over deciding whether or not he deserves it – the supporters are filled with pride and the nay-sayers think he really hasn’t done enough in office (or even had the time to do enough) – to get the prize. What do you think?

3. …And then we bombed the moon.

4. Marge Simpson is going to be on the cover of Playboy.

Cute, funny…or just plain creepy? TV’s favorite cartoon mom will be gracing the nudie mag’s November issue cover, and will even have a “sexy” spread of pictures inside. We’re sure Simpsons fans will rejoice, but it sort of freaks us out.

5. And finally, a site with tons of hairstyles.

We know how much our readers love hair stories — but this site won’t show you how to get gorgeous styles. But just for laughs, you need to head over to dontjudgemyhair.com to check out the craziest, most hilarious do’s you’ve ever seen — faux-hawks, mohawks, mullets — and even something called “The Hermit Crab.”

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