How to Get a Hairstyle You Love

Two weeks ago I took a plunge and cut my hair. I feel like there are two kinds of people: those who rarely ever change their hairstyle, and those who love to change it up constantly. I definitely fall into the latter category. I’ve never been scared of cutting my hair or changing my style up. I’ve had my hair really long, very short, and every length in between. I’ve also played with color a lot. Since I have a lot of grey hair, dyeing it is a must.  I figure if I have to dye it, I may as well have some fun with it!

I decided sometime in late June that I wanted to cut my hair. My four month postpartum hair loss had begun, and my hair was falling out like crazy. It was so long, and while I loved it, each strand that would fall out would seem to get tangled or caught somewhere. I’d find strands in Chloe’s diaper, in my bag, everywhere. I was constantly checking her fingers and toes to make sure there weren’t any hairs wrapped around them. Between the length and the loss of volume, my hair was weighed down and looked flat all the time, too. And while curling my hair would always make it look great, the reality is that from all the dyeing and heat styling, my hair was damaged beyond belief. 

I figured that cutting my hair would give me good volume, would improve the health of my hair, and would reduce the volume of hair that was falling out and ending up all over the house. 

Once I make the decision to cut my hair, I don’t usually second guess myself. I may go back and forth on the exact style, but once I decide, I’m pretty committed. I have never doubted a haircut, and I have always been happy when I’m done in the chair. I’ve been pretty fortunate to never have that “I hate this” feeling after a haircut. I know part of that is luck, but there are also a few things I do to make sure that I love my haircuts. 

1. Find a hairdresser you trust. In my adult life, I’ve never gone to a hairdresser blind, as in - I’ve never looked one up and gone to them. I have always chosen my hair dressers based on recommendations from people whose haircuts I’ve loved. And since I was 16, I’ve only had 3 hairdressers. My second hairdresser stopped cutting hair for a while, and he recommended Kris, my current hairdresser, who I love and have had a relationship with for a couple years now. 
2. Don’t make a big change with a new hairdresser. When you first visit a new hairdresser, do something that won’t stress you out - a trim, touching up your roots, or an all over dye job are all pretty good ways to see if you and your hairdresser jibe together. My first experience with my last hairdresser was having him come to my house and do an updo for me. I had him do updos for me several times before I went to him for a cut and color. With Kris, my current hairdresser, I actually went with a color job and got some purple done in my hair, but she came really highly recommended by my previous hairdresser, I had been following her on Instagram for a while, and she and I chatted a lot before I went in. I felt comfortable with her from the get-go. 
3. Arm yourself with inspiration. Again, I trust my hairdresser implicitly, but I pin multiple images to a Pinterest board to get some inspiration and show my hairdresser. This time, I looked up cuts I really liked and pinned them. I texted my hairdresser one of the images just so she had an idea of what I wanted beforehand, and then that day, as soon as I sat down, I scrolled through my Pinterest board and showed her what I liked. I told her, “Do whatever you think looks best, I’m going for this kind of look.” And she did exactly that. But this is something you can only do with a hairdresser you trust! 
4. Consider your lifestyle and hair type. When I pin looks, I include my hair type. If my hair was really curly, or thick, I’d probably be doing something different. I also think of my lifestyle. This hairstyle requires some styling most days, and it’s just long enough to pick up, but not to do a whole lot with, so it’s not really a haircut I would go for if I wasn’t able to style it in the way I want it to look. 
5. Embrace it! Don’t walk out of there thinking, oh my goodness what did I just do? If you feel confident, you can rock anything! So look in the mirror, run your hands through it, and rock that look, girl! 

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Xoxo, 

Jenise