Like most women, I know my hair very well, I know what colour suits me, what cut suits me, and how to style it. The joy I have in my hair is mirrored by the lack of experience some hairdressers have with it. This experience, I know, comes because they do not know it as well as I do. They do not wake up with it in a dishevelled mess every morning, they do not spend hours straightening that one fussy bit that just will not sit right. And, it is not their fault, it is not their lack of hair knowledge, it comes from the fact that I am a fan of spur of the moment new hairdresser visits. These hairdressers barely know me, let alone have time to acquaint themselves with my locks.

It’s a flippant side to my nature that often gets me in trouble, but more often that not provides a stream of hair anecdotes.

My hair is important to me. Yours is probably important to you too. Your hair being ruined would probably cause you a few moments of sadness. It’s our crowning glory after all, and when it’s not looking, feeling or sitting right, it can throw us off a little bit.

Currently, mine is causing me no end of problems. I know it’s hair, only hair, and that it will grow, but, still. Are you with me?

This post comes from my recent experience in not one, but two hairdressers.

The first hairdresser was a bubbly sort, who raved with me about the Midi cut, so much so that I booked in with her. I actually booked to have this done. And was left somewhat surprised by the very obvious, and very short, ‘pob’ like cut I was faced with in the mirror.

No worries, I breezed (and suppressed my tears), it will grow. It’s only hair.

A few weeks, one holiday, and a short film later, I was still studying the cut curiously. It did not suit my face. I have a chubby face, but don’t worry, i’m used to it. I put it to left, to the right, I shook it all about, but still no. Now, knowing my hair, knowing it will grow, I resolved the ONLY thing I can do to be able to live with it, was to have it lightened more to distract from the cut. Once again, I called to book an appointment, (different hairdresser) and happily went along.

I explained I wanted it platinum. Bold. Punky. More, me. We agreed. There was nodding, there was mixing, there was applying, there was removing, there was blow drying. There was the grand presenting to the mirror.  Once again, there were my tears, suppressed.

After all that chat, fuss, time, I had ended up with ‘Jen from the PTA highlights’. Was I just not explaining myself properly? What was it about me that said ‘Don’t do what I ask, or indeed, am paying you to do? Mess it up a little, I can live with it, it’s only hair!”.

That point in the chair when you’re presented to the mirror, and you’re not happy with your reflection, is the moment you feel like you really should say something, but most often, don’t. Instead, you fluff it up with your hand, almost strangle yourself trying to escape the gown, and dash home, head down, texting your friends on the way. If you speak out, you are committing the most hideous crime against humanit- oops, I mean, hairdressers.

But I was bored of this. Once could be called a mistake, but twice?

So, I spoke out! I was instantly met with, ‘You can come back and have it done again’. But why couldn’t they have just done what I asked in the beginning? Why did I have to take more time to come and have what I’d originally asked for? Why do I have to wait three months for my hair so I can feel it on my neck again?

I think a lot of hairdressers play it safe. They are so far behind all the colour and glam of You Tube tutorials from the world over. Or, are they? Maybe I am too immersed in You Tube tutorials, promising me all the colours of the rainbow. Only, this isn’t true. I do know some hairdressers who are bold, who are experimenting. Blow in Glasgow for one, and here in Edinburgh, carving out his own niche is Mathew Watt Hair. 

Why didn’t I just go there you might ask, and trust me, I am asking myself the same thing right now. I think it’s because I have an eternal hope that all hairdressers are out to make us look our best, to make us look bold, beautiful,  to inspire with their palettes and scissors! Come on, it’s not just Hair. It’s life!