Changing hair dressers is HARD.

By CYNTHIA PIERCE

Changing hairdressers is like changing husbands. Okay, not quite. How about – changing hairdressers is like changing cars. Hmm, I’ll keep working on an analogy that works…

Anyway, I had just started to get comfortable with yet another new hairdresser and even started to consider her to be a friend, when she decided to up and move salons. As tempting as it was to drive for 50 minutes just to get my hair done each month, I knew it wasn’t realistic.

It was a difficult time. See, it IS like changing husbands. And like 39% of Aussie women, I was experiencing major hair envy, according to some decade-long research by Pantene.

I’d walked past a new hair salon at my local shopping centre several times. It looked shiny and new. I thought I’d give it a try. How hard is it to just cut my hair?

I have brown, mid-length hair with long layers. I don’t colour my hair and it’s reasonably healthy. How badly could they stuff it up? After stalling for as long as possible I booked an appointment. My 20-year high school reunion was coming up that weekend and I had to get a haircut. I just had to.

I walked in and was greeted by a really lovely-looking woman around my age. We clicked straight away and had one of those life-changing conversations about children, family, finances and friends, all while she was chopping and hacking into my hair.

I walked out feeling amazing and warm and fuzzy towards my new hairdresser. It wasn’t until I arrived home that I took a good look at what she’d done to me. She’d cut off at least two inches, had gotten rid of lots of my layers and had left me with a short, choppy fringe.

What the hell?

I was devastated. I was ruined. I arrived at work the next day with my weird fringe sticking up and as my work colleagues struggled to compliment me, I coldly explained that I hoped my new hairdresser, whom I would never visit again, would have a terrible accident.

She didn’t, thank goodness, because three days later, after figuring out that I had to stop using my large, round brush to style my shorter hair, I started to get the hang of doing it and it looked pretty darn cute. In fact, for some reason, it took years off my face.

I’d gone through seven stages of grief unique only to getting a haircut.

It was then that I realised I’d gone through the seven stages of grief unique only to getting a haircut – desire, ignorance, denial, shock, anger, acceptance and, finally, happiness.

Sound familiar? Thought so.

When you change your hairstyle even semi-dramatically, you have to change everything about how you style your hair, from the products that you use, to how you dry it, to how you style it. I no longer needed volumising shampoo and conditioner. I no longer needed to dry it upside down. I no longer needed my big round hairbrush. I no longer needed to tease it at the crown. I no longer needed to put heaps of hairspray in it.

And that’s the gift my new hairdresser gave me. She expertly taught me what products to use at home to make my hair better. She knew what it wanted, what it needed and what would suit me – At my high school reunion I was looking younger than many of my former friends. I had the confidence to march right up to my high school crush and engage him in conversation for half the night. (Don’t worry, we’re both happily married). And now, with my new knowledge I can keep this look (and new found confidence) every day.

The point is that you shouldn’t be afraid of getting a haircut that is totally different from your comfort-haircut. Put yourself in the hands of the experts. Sit down and tell them to do whatever they think would suit you.

Then give yourself a few days to love it. Because you will. You totally will.

Have you ever experienced bad-haircut-grief?

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