Curl Talk - Anatomy Of A Bad Haircut

I decided to start a new segment on my blog called "Curl Talk" - basically because I have unmanageable curly hair that makes me crazy and I needed a place to vent about it and hopefully get some suggestions from my other curly haired comrades. You are out there, aren't you?!?

This weekend I finally booked an appointment to get my hair cut. It was waaaay overdue! Every time I get my hair cut it ends up being a traumatic experience so I tend to space them out quite a bit. The main problem is that I don't have a hairdresser that I love so I keep trying new ones hoping to find that perfect fit. Needless to say, I'm still searching.

I decided to try a local place in my neighborhood based on recommendations. As it turns out, the day I had my appointment, my longtime friend Karen came by that I hadn't seen in ages and she ended up coming with me. She must have sensed that I needed moral support.

We get to the place ON TIME and they say there's going to be a 15 minute wait.

Off to a great start!

Finally the woman comes over that's going to do my hair and just has this look on her face. How do I describe it? Disgust? Horror? Disinterest? I'm already getting a bad feeling. I proceed to tell her I just want a little cut off - like maybe an inch because when my hair is short, it just puffs out. I can't have short, curly, puffy hair!! I told her the last time I had it cut, they cut it into long layers and angled it. I don't want that.

So she says. "ok, so I'll give you long layers and angle it"

Hellooooo!!! Was she even listening to me?!? I told her again what I wanted. I looked over at Karen and she was just rolling her eyes.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow she talked me into long layers. Don't ask me how. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.

A different woman washes and conditions my hair, then brings me back to the first one. This is where the fun really begins. As she starts hacking away, she's already telling another customer that she'll be with her in 10 minutes.

TEN MINUTES?!? I just sat down lady!

The more she combs and cuts, the drier, fuzzier and puffier it's getting. The knot in my stomach is also growing - in direct proportion to the rate my hair is puffing.

She thinks she's doing a great job, and I have to keep pointing out the problem areas - which basically is the whole entire head! I started to feel like a shrub and she was the gardener with her hedge trimmers, "Oh, we need a little more here. Now it's not even, let's do a bit more here" As I see more and more hair falling to the floor, I'm really starting to freak out. Whatever happened to ONE INCH???

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I grab Karen, run home, rewet my hair, and put my own products in. I then call for more reinforcements. My sister.

My sister and Karen try to save what's left of it. They proceed to take little sections of hair around my whole head and make twists to set the curls and try to decrease the fuzz.

I can finally relax.

Let's go over the final version: Here's a "before and after" picture. I don't really take many pictures of myself so it was hard to find a good "before" shot. This one will just have to do.

Do you see how much longer my hair was? You're not even seeing my whole head of hair. Believe me, it was long! Look how short that "after" picture is. Eeeek!!

Let's break it down.

First - remember I said I didn't want it short because it would puff out? Well, here's my short, round, shoulder legnth, puffy hair...

Now what's with this piece? Why did she decide to keep this ONE piece long? Doesn't match the other side AT ALL!

This is the part that really gets me. It may be hard to tell from the picture but she hacked my hair into not LONG layers, but SHORT croppy layers!!


The layers are cut to the middle of my head - right where the arrow is! I can't even tie my hair back anymore without half of it falling out!

Yes, the problems us curly haired girls must face.

Next time (which won't be for a long time), I'm going to splurge on either Ouidad or Devachan.

Until then, my hat is going to be my new best friend.