Vitalandfresh
This follows on from previous posts.
Compliments
For the first time in my life I’ve been growing my hair, for over a year now and have had very little encouragement in the form of compliments. A grudging acceptance from Christine, my wife, that if it’s clean and I shave it looks okay, minor verbal abuse at 5-a-side football, and a “your hair’s getting floppy” at choir. Basically people say very little. Maybe the fact that it looks a bit ragged inhibits people from mentioning it as they might be forced to give a compliment!
So at a music event in the town that a school friend of our daughter was playing at, I was delighted when she saw me and cried “I like your hair, it’s cool.” I gave her a tighter hug for that. A month later we were at a niece’s wedding and the bride’s sister also thought I looked cool, though later that morphed into me having a mid-life crisis…
Nails
Before going to the hair salon, I always coat my nails with hardener in the forlorn hope that my hairdresser, Paula, will notice and comment, but it has never happened. Bizarrely even though I wear glossy nail hardener in various levels of disrepair all the time, no one has ever said anything or given me a strange look. The hardener does genuinely help maintain my nails which are as flimsy as paper and will crack and snag at the slightest provocation.
Body perm
It’s finally happening, I had perms as a young adult but a short “normal” hairstyle for decades since. Now I venture into what society still does not fully accept, permanently curling my male hair.
The whole visit was around the expectation of the process, savouring each step: rolling up my hair on perm rods, the perming lotion wetting your head with such a unique smell, rinsing at the sink, the cold neutraliser, and the final delicious wash. I had asked for the lightest perm possible so I was ready for it not to work at all. “How’s it look?” I asked, “There’s a definite bend” was the reply. In the mirror there was a slight wave to my wet hair, normally stick-straight. Paula blow-dried it straight with ends curled under and I was happy.
Christine’s reaction was “But it’s not curly!”, I explained again that it was a body perm to create volume more than curls. It’s bizarre, I know so much more and have so much more interest in hair than my wife.
Basically the body perm worked, I could brush my hair with a round brush without a hairdryer and it would look tidy. After a day or 2 it would look a bit greasy and go stringy, showing a gap at my receding hairline but dry shampoo would fix that for a day or 2 more.
I wanted curls though really.
Haircut and curling session
In the salon again, the trim of the ends is over and Paula grabs a curling iron which was heating on a worktop. That’s a blow as I thought I’d asked for rollers.
As she sections off another tress and winds it round the iron I ask: “You are going to have enough time for this? I make you late each time I ask you to curl my hair, the next customer is always delayed.”
“There’s plenty of time” Paula replies. I am reassured that I won’t suffer the arrival of strangers and their glances, I’ve had that previously.
She adds “Next time I see you it will be 3 months since your perm, it’s time to redo it, shall I book you in?”
I get a boost of adrenaline as I say “Of course”. The thought of having alternate sessions where Paula tries different styles and then I have another perm excites me.
As the curling progresses I can see shiny, generous sized ringlets (short ones) hanging on the sides of my head. This is going to be good. Each wrap and clamp of the iron produces a puff of steam which always makes me wonder whether it’s damaging my hair.
55 minutes has passed and there’s a knock on the door, a middle aged woman with shoulder length hair enters and sits at the side of the salon. Paula finishes curling. There’s a certain excitement of having your feminine style exposed so obviously to a stranger but it stops me talking freely about the next girly hair trial we can have. Paula sprays the ‘do’ with Elnett and trims my eyebrows and I’m done. As I pay we arrange the next appointment which will be a body perm but a bit curlier than the first one.
I walk home with my curls swinging. Christine’s verdict is it’s still not natural. I think it’s great.
2nd body perm
I nervously arrive exactly at 9:30am and knock on the door which swings open after a short delay. I enter to Paula’s greetings and see a woman in the styling chair (my styling chair!), I veer over to the other chair on the left-hand wall. Paula exclaims “No, we’ll wash your hair first”.
As I lay my head back into the washbasin Paula says: “So, today we’re making you curly-curly”, I calmly panic and wonder whether to just agree or have a discussion in front of the other client.
“Err, no I want a body perm to give my hair volume, I will still want to wear it straight”, she hasn’t remembered what I want!? I really should start spelling it out more. Paula responds: “Oh, in that case I’ll need to swap some of the rods in the cart.” The yellow ones get changed for blue, with other larger ones.
The wash is done, and I am rolled up in full view of the other client, it’s fine, I’m getting used to others being around. As I am processing with the perming lotion, Paula completes the other client’s colour who then pays and leaves.
On finishing the perm, the wet-hair reveal looks good, a distinct and all-over kink to my hair. With social events coming later that day I ask for a straight blow dry, though I will try the curls at the first opportunity.
Over the next week I dry it curly by scrunching with mousse, and Christine is okay with it, so – big step – I go public with slightly curly hair. It does look scruffy after a few days, so I need to wash more frequently. Our daughter notices and comments immediately, almost the only one to react, and suggests I find a way to clump the strands better like she does. So I get a brush to do that and it looks a bit better.
First real roller set
Paula takes some time off , so now I need to find another stylist to trim my hair and maybe curl it for fun. I trawl the internet for local salons and choose Hannah’s because she mentions curling in her price list. She also does make up, which piques my interest, I could do it when Christine is away.
Hannah first asks if I want my hair washed, err yesss! After a straightforward washing she trims it minimally which is what I asked for. Then she asks “For the set do you want a curling iron or rollers?” I reply rollers. She rolls me cautiously with the old-fashioned bristle wire rollers that were around when I was little.
Hannah takes photos and reassures me that they won’t see my face. “I need to do more promoting, this is a first for me for a few reasons”.
She didn’t have a hood dryer so I suffered a hairdryer blasting, then letting it cool, then repeat. Because I was alone in the salon, getting hair dry is basically lost time so the reflex is to not dry it enough. So we had a few unrolling false starts. It turned out wavy with loose ringlets hanging. But then she suggested brushing the top back and it made a bouffant quiff, nearly a pompadour. Even though I have a large forehead it looked quite good and I thought much tidier than the unkempt curly curtain bangs I normally sport. I need to learn how to do this so it stays.
Make-up
I had asked Hannah about make up and mentioned that I might like to try it just to see. So after a reasonably successful hair session I booked a make up trial for a few days later when I had the day to myself. Christine is fine with my girly hair but might not understand if I wanted to try other womanly things.
Back at Hannah’s salon, she gets an idea of what I want, nothing too radical, try to enhance my features. I just relax and let it happen.
Having a brush dabbed onto your face is strangely pleasant. My eyes get lash curled, so that’s a hinged clamp of 2 metal eyelash shapes, but more curved. Hannah heated it up with the hairdryer then skilfully approached my eye with it while I held still in terror (well nearly) and only briefly brushing my eyelid she clamped it on the lash. It was there for less than 30 seconds (?) but it felt significant, that it would make a difference.
Then mascara, eyeliner and eyeshadow (do they still call it that?). Lips get lined, the lower lip made a bit bigger, then coated with a peachy colour and gloss.
It doesn’t take too long, maybe 30 minutes, I enjoyed it, more pampering.
Then the big reveal. My eyes seemed to be shining but set into their sockets. Lips looked luscious. I’m not impressed with blusher, I looked like I was teething. But the overall difference is somehow startling and makes me grin stupidly as I look in the mirror and turn left and right.
When I get home, with the more natural light I don’t like the foundation, it doesn’t look natural, there are bits too pale and bits too coloured. I’m disappointed with my lashes, the curling and mascara doesn’t seem to have made a difference. Next (?) time I’ll go for false ones.
Later my eyes start tingling then watering, I can’t rub them but the eyeliner runs anyway and I have a darkish patch below on eye. Hannah had told me she wasn’t using waterproof products because then I could wash it off with soap and water.
Overall it was not a success, I washed my face before Christine returned then dried and found that I hadn’t washed high on my forehead and the make up had made a big orangey skid mark on the towel.
Earrings
While I was made up, and at other times, for instance having curly hair, I would do my earring routine.
This involves making 2 small tabs of clear tape and piercing them to take regular earrings. Then I thoroughly clean my earlobes with surgical alcohol and stick the tabs on. Then I can try Christine’s large collection of dangly and hippy type earrings. You can see the tabs if you look closely but my hair covers it a bit.
I do like the look and feel of dangly or bright earrings. It’s like long or curly hair, you are constantly reminded it is there. The earring brushes your neck and you feel them swing. I think I want to get my ears pierced but I haven’t got the nerve to talk to Christine about it, or to just go and do it. I think at some point I’ll bring it up with Paula my hairdresser.
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