The Chop: Mia Freedman gets another big haircut (and colour)

Image: Mia Freedman mid-chop (and colour)

When it comes to my hair, I am very submissive. The submissivist. Once I find a hairdresser that I trust – truly trust – I give myself wholeheartedly to them. Body and soul. And hair.

I’ve been going to Jaye Edwards (who owns and runs two salons called Edwards and Co in Sydney and Melbourne) for less than a year but ours has been a very intense connection. I fell fast and hard and now when I see him, I’m a Golden Retriever puppy: straight on my back and waving my paws in the air hoping for a tummy scratch (note: this is a METAPHOR, I am not actually on my back because that would be inappropriate and might weird-out the other clients in the salon although Jaye’s two dogs would be down with it – more about them shortly).

The Chop: From Rapunzel to Rose Byrne

I respect and admire Jaye as a business person and a human. He left school at 16 and has built an incredible business and he’s still only 25; a number I find impossible to reconcile with his maturity and wisdom something I enjoy in spades as we talk during my appointments about everything from relationships, work, family, sexuality to current affairs and celebrities (of whom there are many whose hair he does although he’s super discreet about that dammit).

But what I totally love about clicking with a new hairdresser is that it opens up POTENTIAL. Because while I am innately a fan of routines, ruts of any kind are boring and hair ruts are particularly seductive ones. You can lose decades of your life in a hair rut. Goldie Hawn, it’s time.

The Chop: Our most dramatic transformation yet

So when I find someone I trust, my favourite part is just giving up control. I plonk myself down in the chair and say “whatever you think”. WhatEVER. Sometimes I’ll give some vague direction like, “I think I’m over my balyage” or “Cut it all off” or “I feel old” or “I need a change”. But mostly I’m just like, “Dude, you’re the expert, you decide”.

I cannot tell you what a gift and a relief it is to be able to hand over a decision like that. After Jaye chopped about a foot off my hair a few months ago, I loved it. Wheeeeee. But it had grown out of that style and into a bit of an in-between length and colour.

Here is what it looked like:

Meh. So last week, I sat down and let him loose again with the vague instructions:  "Do something!"This is what happened - in HIS words.

Jaye on the cut: "At first Mia and I discussed cutting the length to the shoulder, which I did do at first. But then I didn’t feel it was as flattering as I had hoped, so I cut another inch and a half off. This length was much more suited to Mia. Adding texture to the hair ensured it was not too 'mumsy', and also made the cut more versatile - Mia will be able to wear it polished and sleek, then textured and sexy."

Jaye on the colour: "I used a non-permanent base colour, but I didn’t want it to be too heavy - at times dark colours can make skin tone look pale and washed out, so I used a combination of high and freehand balayage to create very minimal texture thought the base colour. This gives dimension and variation to the colour."

The result was this:

And I felt happy! Younger! Freeer! More summery!

Obviously I could never blow dry it with Jaye's expertise. Most days I don't even have the time or the will to blow dry it at all. So here's how it looked a couple of days later after I washed it and left to air-dry:

So I'm done. There you go. All set for summer. I feel lighter and better. And I'm really a brunette inside.

PS - if you're looking for a new hairdresser and you can't get an appointment with Jaye, in between times I see anyone at his salons because I know they've been trained and vetted by him.

When was your last major haircut?