How To Find Yourself A Haircut (When You've No Idea What You Want)





I had an appointment with a good hairdresser for the most amazing haircut ever. Actually the only thing I knew about my haircut was that it should be amazing, other than that I hadn´t the foggiest idea what I wanted. I did manage to find out, and I got my dream haircut. Here is how I figured out what I wanted, I hope it helps !


Finding Out What I Like

   First, I randomly looked through hairstyles, and saved anything that caught my eye. Forget magazines, Google has much more to offer.
In the image search, I typed "hairstyle" or "haircut". In another search I specified "wavy hair cut" (that´s my hair type), and "long haircuts" (I didn´t want to chop off my long hair which for once is healthy). I also looked through this blog with hairstyle eyecandy and this one for short hairstyleswhich almost made me want to chop my hair off.
   I saved anything that caught my eye. I didn´t censor myself by asking whether it would work on my hair type, my age or my face shape. I was just trying to discover my preferences at this step. At one point I did ask myself if it's really the hair I´m liking, or is it the face & the mood of the photo. I tried to focus just on the hair.
   To expand my search and get a different type of results, I tried googling in other languages: "coupe les cheveux", "corte de cabellos", "frisur",  "haarschnitt", "corte de pelo". It's interesting how the aesthetics vary in different countries.


Looking for repeating patterns

   By now I started seeing some patterns emerge. I looked through the photos I saved. What things do I see a lot of ? A preference for long. Layers. Unstructured disorder. Impish asymmetry. Soft & natural highlights. Bangs. Romantic curls.


Getting Specific With Words

   Back in my browser, I looked at the written descriptions of the cuts I liked most. I noticed the words that describe the style. I found myself repeatedly seeing expressions like "unstructured", "romantic", "asymmetrical", "layers". These are the terms that the stylists use to describe the cuts. I wrote them down, they would help me communicate better with the stylist. I mean, before I found the word "unstructured", I had a really hard time explaining what I wanted.
  I Googled these words: "unstructured haircut", "asymmetrical hair", "long layers". You´ll notice that I played around with the words, to get different search results.
I saved some more pics.

My brain was spinning by now, so I took a break, and came back the next day.


Enlisting help

   I decided to ask friends for ideas. There´s Facebook, real live friends and The Man. I soon realised men aren´t much help in these kind of things.
   Internet forums are a great place to ask for ideas. You do need to put up photos, but you can always remove them after a few days. The worst that can happen is you´ll be banned. It was interesting how a girl on a forum replied to my post with exactly the same hairstyle pic like the one I liked best among those I had saved.


Narrowing it down

  I took photos of yourself, with open hair. I opened the on the computer screen for reference.
  I looked through photos that I saved from the web, and removed the ones I didn't like any more. Looking through the saved pics, I payed special attention to those with similar hair type and face shape like me. At this point I had narrowed things down to a certain look and feel. If I would have been left with several conflicting ideas, I would have choosen one for now, and tried the rest another time.
  I don´t have a printer, so I developed the pics I liked most just like I would order digital photos.


Talking To My Hairdresser

  I had already chosen a hairdresser who would work with my face shape and not bother with the hairstyle fashion. I showed him the photos (he was impressed by the pains I took to prepare myself). I explained what I liked about each photo: the layers on one, the fringe on another, the artistic disarray on a third. I talked about whether that would work for my hair and face. Example: I liked the volume and layers in one photo, but not the length of the hair.  I was not sure whether my hair wouldn't end up in a huge tangly mess if the layers were so short (turns out they would). Then I told him about now having and not wanting to use a hair dryer, and about my indifference to hair trends.
  The hairdresser took it from there, and created a cut that flatters. He didn´t re-create the exact cut from the pictures, rather he interpreted it to go with my face shape and hair type.



    And no, I didn´t try the websites which let you try on hairstyles online. I think they are pretty deceptive, it´s a bit like using looklet to see if an outfit looks good on your body type. Also the choice of hair styles is pretty small.


Tell me, how do you find haircuts for yourself ? Have you ever been to the hairdresser and told them "do what you want" ? Do you love going to the hairdresser or does it make you nervous ?
Photo by Anna Demianenko

    


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