The hair bear bunch

I'm getting that September style feeling. You know just before you go back to uni/school/college and you haven't seen anyone (well you're not a recluse but you get the picture) for 6 weeks or longer and you want to prove you've not fallen into an ugly hole over the summer? In fact you want to do quite the opposite, you completely re-vamp and work extremely hard on your image so that when all of your acquaintances see you they are so stunned by your looks that you have miraculously developed over the summer that they assume that you must have always looked like that and they are only noticing it now. And you play it all down by saying things like 'what this old thing?' and 'I thought my hair looked dreadful today?' And everyone remarks on what a lovely modest young lady you are.


Now the classic short cut to achieving this new season rebirth is a hair cut, a bit off the shoulders, a mop chop, because, lets face it, if you've got bad hair people avoid you. No one wants to run their fingers through a scrubbing brush. It is a tragedy that this required cut has to happen in September, the one month when rain is almost guaranteed and your GHDs become better company than your boyfriend. In fact the more I think about it the whole experience is extremely stressful. I remember my brother requiring a 'my first hair cut' book, to ease him through the experience.

(not totally reassured by the fact the man holding the razor has his eyes shut)

When it comes to hair the whole world is captivated. Even as little kids we are hounded with stories about terrifying hair situations. Rapunzel was locked away in a tower in fear of someone stealing her hair that could heal wounds (referring to Disney's recent film Tangled, if you've not seen it its worth a watch!) And the tale of Melisande whose hair never stopped growing and to stop it strangling her in her sleep had it cut daily, which going by Tulisa's £250  a day price tag is bound to make anyone cry. Even my dad, whose aging pony tail is not the most stylish job, watches in fascination as Davina, Claudia and Penelope swish their locks and whisper 'because we're worth it.'

(Keri Katona's clip in extensions)

One of the most frightening prospects that come with hair cuts is the idea of choosing what to have done. Over the summer I have come across countless dilemmas about hair. It's not like a new outfit, you can't just return it if it goes wrong. My ex flat mate had a constant ongoing battle with her hair. Trying to embrace the change she died her hair, which had been bleach blonde for years, to bright red and, despite every ones oohs and aahs, instantly hated it and it has taken her the best part of 6 months trying to get it back to her original colour and she's still not there, Sainsbury's should write her a check for the amount of hair dyes she helped them sell.


Does this mean that we should, as Sharpay Evans once said, stick to what we know, stick to the status quo rather than brave new ventures? I know a collection of people who have lived by the same hair cut for years and it hasn't done them wrong, I can't imagine one particularly northern friend of mine without a fringe, or my father without a pony tail for that matter. So what does it take to make the first incision?


Sat in the hair dressers you are bombarded with millions of questions, 'should I cut it off?', 'fringe or no fringe?', it's very easy to become a yes man when with a hair dresser as I recently discovered at my latest hair appointment, I found myself saying 'yes I love Dorothy Perkins and yes I hate Lady Gaga', neither of which are true, just to avoid awkward conversation. There was one occasion when I really did go a bit mad.

(My pick of some of the worst kinda up-doos, mind some are pretty clever! wish I could get my hair to look more like a vehicle of flight.)

On holiday in Brighton I asked the hair dresser to suggest a hair style he said asymmetric and lose the fringe, unsure I said we'd proceed with even hair and then decide at the end. But this hair dresser was cunning and after cleverly fueling me with free wine I let him cut my hair into a wonky bob. It actually looked decent but I could never find anyone who could recreate it like Hoolio could, or maybe it was Havier?


So yes hair cuts are traumatic but they also necessary. Your hair is probably one of the first things people will notice about you, my mum recently told me I looked more approachable with my new doo. Charming. The important thing is that it's your body and your hair should be reflective of you not what Loreal wants you to be. I also tend to find that Hair dressers, being hair dressers, tend to be good at cutting hair and they won't make you look like an idiot.


All the same I went for my old fringe again, it means I don't have to pluck my eyebrows as often, whilst simultaneously gulping down Holland and Barret hair vitamins to try and get myself some Rapunzel hair for some gorgeous prince to climb up.