Ever since my first dye job in high school, I’ve had nearly ever color imaginable. Zebra-stripe highlights in 1999, purple-black in 2005, fire-engine red in 2008. But for the past few years, I’ve had some variation of “brunette-with-highlights.”
But lately, I’ve been wanting to go shorter and blonder. The ultimate dream is to one day feel confident enough to go into Michelle Williams territory (circa 2011) — but I’m not quite there yet. (If you ever want to witness how transformative powers of the blond pixie, consider the style evolution of Rebecca Dana, a former style and media reporter at the Wall Street Jounal. Her cut and color was so powerful, she referenced it in her memoir.)
The only way I’ll get to the blond pixie is if I start slowly, making incremental changes until the scissors finally snip at the nape of my neck.
Here was my inspiration for the initial stage:
I chose images of Amanda Brooks (socialite and former fashion director of Barney’s) and Chloe Sevigny (actress and style icon) for this latest cut.
Amanda’s shoulder-length hair had enough layers and texture to be interesting (and we both have the same cowlick near our off-center part). Chloe’s hair has the more interesting color. I wanted to combine the two.
My stylist (Brittany at Salon Caru in Hoboken) totally got what I was going for. She snipped several inches off my longish bob for a shoulder-length version and added multi-dimensional blond shades — including hand-painting the tips.
This is the shortest and blondest I’ve had my hair in YEARS. Yet, it doesn’t seem like a huge change — half of my office didn’t seem to notice the difference either.
Even so, it’s one step closer to my eventual fate as Michelle Williams’ doppelgänger. (Unless I totally lose my nerve. That’s also a possibility!)
Have you ever tried a daring haircut? Any tips?
