New Hair, New Hairdresser

There are times in a woman’s life when she feels unattractive, too fat or just need a change. For me, it was all of the above. Aside from the fact that I gained weight after cancelling my gym membership (was paying and not going. Waste of time. Big mistake. Thunderthighs  and muffin top are a testament to the fact that I shouldn’t have canceled), my hair was as long as my bra clasps. The yummy curls I had was now reduced to pathetic bean poles hanging from my head. And so I decided to have a haircut despite protests from my boys, particularly the youngest one G. I assured him that I won’t have it really short.

I didn’t want to wait for my Korean friend Y to take me to the hairdresser. And I didn’t want to run the risk of getting a bad hair day just in case my instructions get lost in translation, I then decided to trek to the mall and get a haircut from one of those haircutting chains. My aunt and I had a good haircut from one of the hairdressers there and I was hoping she was still there. To my delight, she was. And so I specifically asked for her despite the 2 or 3 other hairdressers hovering, eyeing me as if I am a hippopotamus and they the lions waiting for the kill. R the hairdresser then sat me on the chair. She is, by the way, Asian too. I only trust my hair to fellow Asian women, nothing personal. I feel as if, sharing the same hair color and type, they understand me better. She had this very chic short hair with big dangling earrings and cool eyeglasses. Before I was able to tell her what I would like to do with my hair, she fingered my hair and tsk tsked.  With a stern look on her face, she said: “you had a perm and it was a bad perm”. What? this lady’s a genius! This is the first time I’ve been back since maybe 3 years ago and she remembered I had straight hair? But then I remembered that she does this for a living and she probably recognizes what you did to your hair at first glance. “Yes, I had a perm” I meekly replied. Feeling like a scolded child for doing something to my hair and she was not the one who did it. That I went to someone else instead of her. “How long ago was that?” peering at me through her glasses I felt like I was in the principals office instead of the hairdressers. “Four months ago”. “What? Had your perm been done the right way you wouldn’t have lost your curls like this.” I protested that this is the longest time I’ve been with a perm and that my stick straight hair is just plain stubborn but she didn’t pay attention. She then told me the correct way to perm the hair and had I taken care of it, it would have lasted a long time. So I told her it’s okay for now. All I need is a trim because I am getting tired of my hair and made a promise that if I need another perm I’d go to her. That seemed to satisfy her and so we compromised on me getting a trim.

Only after I was seated and she was chopping off layers from my hair did I know that she is in fact, an artist. (Which probably explained the temperament a little bit). She is into orchids and has a greenhouse, she does photography and goes into competitions. She said there is no money on art and so she cuts hair. That settled me right there and decided that this is going to be my regular hairdresser from now on.

I went out of there with a nice new haircut which earned a thumbs up from the boys.

And so, here it is, I present - my hair:

Told you I shouldn’t have cancelled the gym membership.

In Search of a Better Whatever

I am running low on my pressed powder. And even though it works for me - good coverage, SPF and all, I want to switch brands and try a different one. Not that I am being disloyal to the brand but that because I wanted to know if there is something out there that can be better than what I have.  This attitude of mine drives FishermanHubs nuts! I do it to my recipes too. I tweak recipes even though to him it’s perfect. But then to me, it’s not. Because I want to make it better. And to him it’s okay the way it is, don’t mess with a good thing. For me though, I have this itch to make it better. What if I revised a recipe altogether and make a really really good recipe. Good enough to build an empire around? To live off of when I get rich famous for devising a recipe that is so good, people would crave for it and order it by the dozen? Okay, so maybe it won’t happen like that but hey, a girl can dream! I read about those success stories about people who create their own recipes and make a living out of it and live comfortably and still love what they’re doing. Provide jobs to people, be comfortable enough to buy their own dream house, pay off the mortgage and travel once in a while to exotic places. “Have a craving for pho? Let’s go to Vietnam!” That kind of thing. But oh well, back to my face powder.

FishermanHubs wants me to stick to the brand. “It works for you”, he said.

Me: “But the thing is, sometimes my face still looks oily even with the powder.”
FH: “Yeah well it’s better that your face is oily. Then you won’t have as much wrinkles”.

I roll my eyes and don’t say anything. At this point I don’t even know if I want to buy pressed powder. Maybe I’d hold off until the very end. When I can see the bottom of the container. Then I can decide. Should I stick to the old? Or try something new?

The hair

photo credits: www.msn.com
So here I am, not a week into my new-hair-phase and I am still trying to figure out how to style it. Well, not really style it because all I have to do is to put this hair setting lotion thing and I’m done. Did the hairdresser say to put it on while my hair is wet? Does that mean I dry it up a little bit first (no blow dryers for me! she said because I’ll lose my curl real quick) by wringing it in a towel and then put the setting lotion on? Where do I start? Do I do it from the roots to the tip of my hair? Do I bend over just to make sure the hair underneath gets the same treatment as the hair on top and make it more voluminous? I curse myself for not writng down the instructions she gave me. I thought it was simple enough not to forget. What I did for the past few days have been trying to figure out what works best by doing it differently every time. I accidentally put too much setting lotion yesterday and there were globs of hair stuck together. Eeew! But then when it dried it didn’t look too bad. And that’s another thing, I have to dry my hair naturally. Which means I walk around while my hair’s still damp. Why, I haven’t done this since I was in grade school and we had to go to school with damp hair because we’re always running late. Brings back memories, really. LOL
We went to a party last night and my hair got rave reviews. Guess putting gobs of that gooey, slimy hair lotion must have paid off. (Note to self: buy more of that gooey stuff.) They said I looked blooming and that my hair looks much better now. Now wait, does that mean my hair looked horrible before? I didn’t ask. I was basking in my new-hair-greatness.
While I wasn’t able to duplicate the way my hairdresser styled my hair with bouncy, soft curls, I am okay with my hair so far.
These pictures of these famous women shows how my hair looks like. Don’t get any ideas though, I bear no resemblance whatsoever with these women. Keira Knightley’s hair with the bangs is what my friend Y’s hair is right now.

So what is it really about hair that women are so obssessed about? It can make or break a face. How you look like would depend greatly on how your hair plays up your best facial feature. So yeah, having great hair is a big deal.

Crowning Glory

After 5 months of a new hairstyle, (I had my hair chopped off in layers and highlighted in the PI), I decided it was time for a change. I called my Korean friend and asked her to come with me. I don’t trust anyone to touch my hair except for tried and true hairdressers. In this case, it’s a Korean hairdresser (couldn’t find a Filipina) who speaks about less than 50 english words. I needed my friend to translate for me and it was also an excuse so we can have lunch together.
At first all I wanted to do was have my hair trimmed and highlighted or colored, nothing drastic really. It’s not like I want to go blond or anything. Just something new as my hair has grown really long (about the length where the bra strap is) and having stick straight hair has become blah and boring for me. I’ve always been bored with my straight hair. As my friend Y and I have been browsing the hair magazines, we saw these pictures of Asian women with soft big curls and thought “that’s what we wanted”. Gone was the thought of whether we’ll go red or orange for highlights. We were visualizing bouncy, wavy, framing your face curls. She translated for me and the hairdresser worked on her magic. She’s brisk and snappy but she gets the job done. As they gossip in Korean, I stared into the mirror as I looked at my reflection. My hair was being twisted, liquid was poured on and a cap was put in my hair. I had to wait as my hair “baked” and the hairdresser used the time to do my friend’s. Amidst the mountains of Korean magazines and cookbooks, I contented myself with looking at the pictures. The TV was on and thankfully the next show had English subtitles. Finally, after neutralizing, my hair was shampooed. Hairdresser pulled and rinsed and washed my hair as if wrestling with a 500 pound sumo wrestler. After squeezing it dry, I was on the chair again and she proceeded to dry and style my hair. It was well worth it when my hair looked va-voom stylish! The bounce, the wave, the curl was exactly what I got and I was one happy puppy.
I was anxious to show the boys my new hair and waited for them to say something when I picke them up from school. Finally, I asked both of them: “Do you notice anything new with me?”
Older son C: “No, you always look nice”
younger son G:”Yeah”
Me: “look carefully”
younger son G:”your hair’s curly, it’s nice!”
older son C: “oh yeah! you look pretty, Mom”.
Aaaawww.
I wanted to surprise DH but G spilled the beans over the phone. “Mom’s hair is curly now!” when DH got home, he commented on how good it looks and proceeded to tell me again during the course of the evening. Thank God he didn’t ask how much it cost.