COMFORT BLANKET

HAIR….

For some it’s a comfort blanket, for others it’s their pride and joy. It may be what you hate most in your beauty arsenal. It is usually what most people want to change: hair type, color, texture, shape, etc.

Curly hair wants to be straight. Straight hair wants to be curly. Too thick and you get it “thinned” out and razored to be manageable. Too thin and you attempt every product to thicken those locks. But at some point you look back in life at a certain hairstyle with endearment or complete horror (who else is getting a kick out of these flashback 10 years photos?!).

Now, let us talk about that once a month or once a year hairdresser appointment. Yes, I can go a year without seeing my hairdresser, but sometimes getting through even a month with ‘bad hair’ seems like a lifetime. As much as I hate to admit it, I definitely fall smack dab under the hair category of ‘comfort blanket’. I have always been told I have “good hair”, and when it is not good I feel completely at a loss with my looks.

Besides one bangs episode, one short hair episode, and one white blonde attempt (that was in fact piss yellow most of the time); my hair has almost been the exact same since high school (probably 15 years of the same-ness to be exact). Long, curly, tossled, blonde highlights…. sameness.

Going to my hairdresser for a long time was such a boring thing, “lets highlight the top and a little trim off the bottom, thanks!”. Sometimes I am upset and bored by this fact that I can’t branch out, and sometimes I am completely at ease with the sameness of it all.

Then comes the anxiety and excitement of using a new hairdresser. I switched hairdressers on a whim last year after a suggestion from a fellow curly haired friend. It was a very emotional battle for me to book an appointment with someone else after having been to that same amazing person since I was 15. So there I was, in his chair acting like we were on a first date just hoping he would like me. He complimented my hair saying I had such “good hair” (see above: comfort blanket), and then we had that conversation of what I want….

 Yikes. The descriptions that came out of my mouth were astounding. I walked out of the appointment replaying what I said like a scene right out of a romantic comedy after a bad first date. The word vomit that came out of my mouth while trying to describe what I wanted, well, it made no sense. To name a few:

“I want to look like I’ve just rolled out of bed”

“I feel like my hair usually resembles the “before” girl in most of the Garnier commercials, I’m okay with that”

“I love a good 80’s hairstyle”

“I want the haircut to look like I have bad extensions”

“I want to look like I had dyed my hair white blonde, but like the rockstar that I am I just haven’t gotten around to coloring it again”

“Punk rock, but like, with a natural look… like, you know, its always been that way”

WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I TALKING ABOUT?! Seriously, if you can find me an example of this frightening hairstyle and color I am describing you will win a prize. And honestly half of that was not really what I meant, just descriptions that came to my mind as I jumbled around my head trying to come up with visuals sans photos or representation of any kind. Again, yikes.

Luckily, he somehow managed to paint my hair in the perfect description of what I was going for. The cut had random layers and tossled pieces that were what I wanted. How did he know?! Did he already have what he wanted to do with my hair in mind and it just turned out nice? It wasn’t THAT far off what I had been getting done for years, just a little different cut and a different coloring technique. Anyways, whatever it was it made me feel like my comfort blanket had just come out of the laundry and was ready to go out on the town. Safe sameness for the win.

So if you are taking this new year on with a new hairstyle, I applaud you and all the guts that takes (and as a bonus you’ll have a lot of fun in another 10 years looking back on this decision!). For the rest of you that enjoy the same sameness with your hair year after year, I feel you. Here’s to finding your own way to explore your self expression this year!

Campaign shoot for @solestruck & @yeswearetheshit, photographed by @mieshphotography

Models: @minji, @erica_vannoy, @mackmackmack

Wardrobe & Hair styling: @camilla.dahlin.art

Makeup: @eight.of.spades