Hair Mood Boards

I'm seeing a new hair person on Thursday. I'm sick of looking. I really want to settle down.  He sounds amazing and I really want things to work out between us. I want to have a lasting, productive relationship. I really want to establish a standing appointment. Having a standing hair appointment will be some grown-ass-lady stuff. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

I've been creating mood board collages of my hair history. The good and the better.

Sure, it's vain, but it's also hard to create verbal illustrations of how you expect your hair to turn out. I recommend when you're having a good hair day that you photograph it. You don't have to share it with the internet, but save it somewhere you can refer to if you need to meet a new stylist.

I sometimes feel like a little psycho taking all these photos of my hair, but look, they're helpful. I'm really happy I've got this crazy-girl archive to mull back over and decide where to go from here.






Til then, I'm breathing deep and printing, printing, printing examples.

I bet I'm the only person who brings in example photos of myself.

Hair Update: Blonde Bob w/Roots

I enjoy the beauty school, but I guess I wanted something different and I observed a blonde woman's hair for a while and asked her who she goes to. (I asked a blonde person because I think blonde trickery is harder and the last brunette I asked sent me to a terrorist.)
My blonde lady-friend goes to someone who books a month in advance.
I made the appointment weeks ago and my appointment was very near but I am happy with my hair at the moment so I postponed until January.

I have been cutting my bangs myself. I guess I cut the sides and back too.



I did feel frustrated and diseased by having roots all the time but now I kind of like them. I'm Ok with them... for now...  and since we're going to try a popular person, we have no choice but to look like this til' January.

Growing, cutting, growing

I was a useless lump today except I did give myself a little haircut.
I'm trying to grow this stuff out with some unity but sometimes you have to weed-out your crazy flips and rat-tails. My orange lipstick is MAC Vegas Volt. It's easier than red. 

I pulled myself together to go out to dinner after just laying on the couch all day.
We did take Bonnie dog to Central Park this morning to have coffee and pastries and lay in the grass and sun.

I'm excited about my new motorcycle jacket that came from a real motorcycle store.
I got it a few months ago when it was SUMMER so it was on SALE.

It's ultra-wind-proof and has wonderful pockets and I love this shade of pink. Very Lady Biker Badass.

I realized we are twinkies in our helmets and black-frame glasses. His are real and mine are fake.


I can't believe this is about our SIXTH night of not only riding bikes together but simply the fact that we haven't had a night where were did not go out at night to do something. We need to ground ourselves. Just for one night. 

Maybe don't try this at home

Maybe don't drink your dinner then go home and cut your own hair. I've had years of practice.
The first time I gave myself a drastic haircut was in the 5th grade.

Lotsa times my hair gets thick and round and I just cut it myself. Here's my result from last night's affair.

I had a life-long hair-dresser in Arkansas. When I moved to North Carolina I didn't know who was going to cut my hair, so my Arkansas hair-lady told me to buy a razor like this - It was less than $5 at Sally Beauty Supply. 

I've had this one razor for about 10 years.

Last night I felt a final straw moment with this hairball.

I definitely look more put-together. 

I didn't even see these results until this morning (after a fresh wash & blow-dry) because I passed-the-heck out last night and just slept on wet hair. It looked amazing this morning when I walked The Bonnie Dog at 6:30am. Gorgeous, I tell ya! I'm quite embarrassed about my dog-walking looks which occur at that early hour on week-days. Sometimes I'm smart enough to cover-up with sunglasses. All these maintenance dudes and construction workers see me walking Bonnie-dog, then I re-emerge later and no one recognizes me. 

I don't know if I will ever grow out of this asymmetrical cut if I just keep repeating it. I'm OK with that. Who needs symmetric hair anyway?

The saddest part about cutting my hair is knowing that I'm cutting off $$$ in haircolors. Yes, $$$. 

*I'm in no way encouraging anyone to cut their own hair. If anyone jacks themselves up, I never told anyone to cut their own hair. I'm just telling you about how I do it. Probably don't cut your own hair. Don't do it. 

I've Got This

After bitching about my hair for a few days I remembered that I am great at cutting my own hair!
Saturday morning I thought about it a little and got ready. I was really inspired by my friend Reiko's really cute, extremely asymmetric cut. She has a shaved side. I can't go there, but I could go ultra-short on one side.

I think I did a great job:


I really just exposed my left ear by whittling away with this thinning-razor thing that I bought at SALLY many years ago for about $3.

I'm sorry if that pic is gross. Just showing you how much I can thin-out of there and still have a lot of hair left.



Saturday-day I had brunch with my Japanese friends. We shopped some cheap-o shops in Spanish Harlem.


Then I went home (in a taxi, checked in with my husband) and got on my bike. I went to the West Side to see Black Swan with friends. We saw it at the theater in Lincoln Center. If you've seen Black Swan, you'll understand why it was an amazing and creepy move to see it there, because right across the street is the actual Lincoln Center where most of the movie takes place.

I loved Black Swan so much! I also loved that Saturday night was slightly over 50º and biking was a delight. Central Park was alive and the streets were pretty clear.



Are you wondering- Did her fuchsia lipstick last through a brunch at a Mexican restaurant, shopping in Harlem, then biking across New York City, then watching an entire movie and eating a bucket of popcorn?! Yes! My lipstick did last! I did tiny touch-ups, but I set the stage correctly and was careful all day.

Saturday was a great success!

The Stephanie Szostak Hair Post

This topic was my most popular blog post/search/whatever of 2010. My blog changed locations in 2010, so there was a sort of interruption in service with keywords but my #1 most popular by leaps & bounds posts was the one where I talk about Stephanie Szostak's hair. 

Dinner with Schmucks is coming out on DVD this week and I bet another traffic flare-up will occur. I sat in the theatre clawing my arm-rests trying to burn the images of her haircut in my brain. I almost want to buy the DVD so I can look at her adorable hair over and over. Even my pics on Flickr where I mention that my haircut was inspired by her hair are top most popular photos. 

I tried to find new photos of Stephanie today on Getty & through Google image searches but I found nothing. I wonder what she's up to? If she googles herself and finds this- she should message/comment me. I believe she lives on the West Side and I will ride my bicycle right over there to hang out and talk about cute haircuts. 

I was SO LUCKY because I already had a hair appt. on the books for the next evening as I sat there in that 'Schmucks screening. (I went to a couple free pre-screenings this summer.) This haircut lead the way to my hair becoming very short this summer.

If you're looking for that Stephanie Szostak haircut- I don't know where she goes salon-wise, but it looks to me like a razor cut. As in, that cut was not done with scissors. It's very asymmetrical. If you can't handle your hair being long on one side and short on the other-  move on. 

Fresh little cut

I love my salon + it's/my girls (Eva Scrivo Salon - Gwynne & Amanda.) I didn't know what my hair needed exactly, but I emailed and got a next-day appointment. I sat in the chair and talked aimlessly, and got up and demonstrated how I look at the back of my hair to my colorist. She actually paid attention to my crazy paranoid hair issues. We started looking at it, and decided the real solution was a cut. My colorist does not cut hair. At all. I was about to beg her to just cut it a little bit in a few places. Turns out my cutter was in the house and completely not expecting to see me - she was actually getting her hair colored/glazed, but she was totally down to give me a bit of a cut.

I got a fresh Glaze put on and a little but cut. Very cute! She cut 2 key places and that really fixed me up.




Today I got out of work at 2pm for the Holiday and I rode up to West Elm on the Upper West Side. Upper West Side means I needed to ride across Central Park to get Home. It was AWESOME! No traffic means SO MUCH LESS BICYCLE commuter STRESS!


Nothing but carriages (which STUNK! Horse Poops!) other bikes and joggers/walkers and rick-shaw taxis.







Helmet, always! I'm still loving this bike. I wish my lock wasn't so heavy because I can never-not-have it. Boo! I think it weighs 6 pounds.

So today when I came home, I parked my bike in the courtyard and carried my purse, basket and bag of new super-clearance West Elm towels upstairs then carried a pretty naked bike down the stairs into the storage room. Bicycle commuting is a whole new world of strategizing.

Shopping requires strategy too. You have to find a place to lock it up, then secure it and carry all of the crap you were previously carrying into the store to buy more crap to carry. I've been lucky tying on cloth grocery bags.

And here's my work/bicycle outfit for today - Ultra casual day at work:


I've gotten my money's worth out of these $4.99 flip-flops! I wish I could find more of them.

Maiden Voyage + Haircut

I rode my new bike approx. 9 MILES! It was 4.5 miles each way and I got a haircut in-between, but now I need a nap. It's exciting riding in the city. I didn't feel confident enough to ride in NYC until after we had lived here for 1 year. Now I feel super-happy and confident about it. The weather is now my biggest inhibitor.

I have a bell on my new bike and it was fun to ring it at people. Like old grand-pappies who were staring at me and people who I thought might open their car door. "Riiing!!! Don't try it, bitch!"

I rode down to Eva Scrivo to get my hair cut. I got a dope scalp massage the Gwynn cut my hair and I dumped a ton of PF gossip on her lap. This is Gwynn who cuts my hair. She's so gorgeous. Some other chick had on CHANEL ESPADRILLES. It was fun to see those babies.

Even after I had to wear my new (Matt bought this for himself) helmet:


My haircut still looks pretty cute! ...for helmet hair.


I was/still am starving and it's a GLORIOUS day in NYC, so I heated up some pizza and opened up the terrace.


I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again - Having a terrace and living on a quiet street has increased my quality of life in NYC measurably.





Matt got me this crazy fat bike lock:



And luckily our building has a bicycle storage room. This is my Schwinn hangin' tough.

Free Haircut!

My hair was feeling extra thick and conservative and since I'm spending so much time on Craigslist (and other job sites of course) looking for jobs, I like to look into other adventures too. I wrote someone who needed short-hair hair-cut models. The salon turned out to be really swanky and it turned out to be in the neighborhood.

The owner is one of those "Celebrity Stylists" and he was actually there. I read his press book in the waiting area and was surprised that someone who works there is on the Michelle Obama hair team and the owner himself does Renee Z. When I met my lady she had to show me to the owner so that he could see the "Before." After my personal dealing with "celebrity stylists" he was typical. No one (fancy, who I've met and is famous and owns their business) is as friendly as Eva S.

So the haircut was nice. Nice space, tons of cute people working there. If I need free haircuts long-term, I know where to go. I overheard that "Apprentice highlights" are $40. Woo hoo! If you're not familiar with the "Apprentice" system, people who are licensed in NYC have to "Apprentice" for 2 whole years before they graduate to working on the floor by themselves and generating their own clientele. I guess it's more serious in upscale salons. I appreciate the charity!

This is just an outfit pic. The flannel shirt is not your typical lesbian flannel- It is Vintage Diane Von Furstenberg that I purchased in Malvern, Arkansas. Hello.

I did a little photo shoot and put some things on eBay yesterday.
I was professional and invested $25 in a roll of seamless paper to shoot my items against a nice background: