Readers from home deserve an update and both before and after shots. I now have a “frenzied” haircut, thanks to my efforts to ‘hair model’ for Toni & Guy in Ulsan. I wouldn’t call it real hair modeling, as I think the purpose of my cut was more for the stylist to 1. practice and 2. update his portfolio. They gave me five uber-short choices, and mine is from the salon’s “Interactive Collection 2009“.
I had finally grown my hair out from a horribly mom-ish cut I had done senior year of college. It was way over 10 inches-long enough to donate! I’ve been longing to get a body wave or something for forever, and the length was also finally appropriate for some really good braids and buns and all manners of other unstylish ’dos that I like to…do. But it was hot. And heavy. And tangly. And I never bothered styling it. It was all I could do to blowdry the mess. It took forever to wash, and it took loads of products to maintain.
Good riddance.
Just two days before the chop, my long ponytail in a typical cutsie Korean hair accessory.
Photos courtesy John, via my camera.
How I usually wore my hair, and how most of my students/coworkers saw me. T minus one hour before the chop.
Can you tell I’m excited? In the two weeks leading up to the appointment (from the time of consultation), I had moments of doubt and despair. But every time, I realized that this was only sentimentality talking, and that I COULDN’T WAIT to feel the breeze on my neck. I think the last time my hair was even close to this short was in 1994, when I was still wearing timberlands with sundresses and playing with pogs.
And here I am, with my new "frenzied" cut, pouting with the fashion model who bears the same hairstyle. The stylists wanted to dye my hair like hers, and also to shave the nape of my neck, but I had to draw the line at a radically short cut.
The experience was great. All the stylists wear funky clothes and fun cuts, which reminded me of Bang back in DC. The girl with the best English had long, curled, dyed hair, and faux eyelashes. The manager with slightly more broken English had a severe blunt cut, lensless horn-rimmed glasses, and wore a spandex minidress and suspenders in bright colors. All of the stylists wore platforms or shape-ups. They serve coffee in English teacups and I drank water from a large crystal goblet. 필립 (“PILL-up” aka Phillip) knew enough English to pose in the mirror and say “I’m sorry!” as he grinned and began hacking at my inch-plus-thick ponytail. He was a spiky-haired cutie in a purple cardigan and gray skinny jeans. After the initial hack and a relaxing shampoo, he spent at least an hour shaping, or should I say: whittling, my hair down to its present thinness (pausing once more to smile and apologize). To aid in the styling stages, he used a spray mousse and a sea salt spray that I LOVED. I smelled like the beach. Suspender lady kept coming over to play with my hair and encourage me with assurances of “FRENZY! you know, FRENZY!” Except it sounded more like “frengee” when spoken in her Korean accent.
Students and teachers were shocked, of course, but all seem to really like it. A bunch of my once-innocent first grade boys (now big bad second-graders) even adjusted their pants upon complimenting my new style. Maybe they were still adjusting their clothes from PE class. One group of girls thought I’d broken up with John, and another excitedly informed me that I now look like Nicole from 카라 (KARA). I google-imaged her and didn’t quite agree, but they showed me a more recent photo today that I can safely say augments their argument. Her haircut IS similar, though a bit longer, but I still don’t look much like a K-Pop star.
Or, I should say, she doesn’t look like me. When I first ran my search, I was horrified to find that she was born in the 90s and that so were two other girls in the popular band…I was relieved to find a few girls in their twenties, only to read that they’re not at the start of their careers. They were child actresses and VJs during their teens. So. Yeah. Hullo again, quarter-life crisis. How ya been.
- It even survived the half-hour scooter ride home. Helmet head? OK!
in my own google and naver searches.
Now my question for the greater public (well, only the informed public, however great that may be) is: what is the best organization to donate or sell my hair to? “Sell?!” you shout, shocked at my audacity. Well, here’s the thing. I was checking out Snopes and a few other scam-debunking sites, and it seems to me that Locks of Love, the first (and only) organization I thought of upon chopping off my hair, only uses a small percentage of the ponytails they receive. Then they sell the rest. So is there someone who’d be more likely to use mine? Or someone who’d pay me for it? Or is Locks of Love still the way to go? Solid info is greatly appreciated.
Love it!!!