Heroes of Hair: the middle school years then and now

Good morning!

I just started this blog yesterday, and although there was no concrete plan for what order or format my posts were going to be, it appears that I'll be bouncing around between the present and the past. I didn't want to just open up with 2 months worth of an autobiography followed by current events. Way back in the heyday of Myspace, I blogged about every day, but I was in my early twenties and spent most of those entries drawing attention to mindless, self-deprecating adventures in college. 

At this beginning stage, writing this blog is intended to help me look at my styling career as a whole while acknowledging all those little factors that accumulated into what my current skill level and perceptions have become. Along the way, there will be some styling tips, because I do love to share when I can. I was a music teacher for about 7 years before I moved to Chicago and eventually became a stylist, and my desire to enlighten people's minds with enabling them with new skills has never left me. As for today's post, I'll leave the enlightenment for later and continue yesterday's post by sharing the (mis)adventures in cutting/styling my own hair.

10th birthday Oct 1991: "stonewash jeans? but i wanted a
Swiss army knife!!"

When I was about 10 years old, my absolute hero of the time was the all-knowing, humble, resourceful, and stylish Richard Dean Anderson, aka. MacGyver. I bugged my dad to get me a Swiss army knife for the longest time, but I never actually owned one until I was a junior in high school. If you remember back to the early 1990s, Captain Planet had one, Billy Ray Cyrus had one, and oh yes, MacGyver had one: The Mullet- business in front; party in the back.

You can't actually see it in this picture, and I'm not even sure where the actual photographs from that era are located, but I rocked the mullet for most of 5th grade and let the top of my hair grow out well into 6th grade when grunge was starting to make its way into the mainstream. Having performed haircuts on children over the last few years, I look back now and realize that I was totally one of those super picky, self-conscious kids whose sense of personal style required a steady reference point from TV and film. I had this husky and cool-headed 12 year old boy in the salon one day, and my co-stylists had done his hair a handful of times before, noting that he kept a picture of Owen Wilson with him every time he came in and insisted THAT is how he would like his hair cut. I never carried a picture of MacGyver with me on the way to Stan's Barber Shop, but I totally know where this kid is coming from. I was (still am) kind of an odd duck, and I knew I stood out from the crowd of kids at the local suburban middle school being the one Filipino kid in hundreds of white kids. Upon accepting that you're gonna stand out no matter what, the most accessible choice is to ride that rail and define your own style however it damn well pleases you. So when they put him on my book, I knew I had him covered. I gave him the long, flowing shag cut, but kept the 'square' properties to the look so that he wouldn't look like he had a women's haircut. After I got done, his face lit up so brightly and he couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror. It feels good to make people feel that way, and obviously, this kid was gonna have a good chunk of swagger to last him for a few weeks before he comes back in for a trim.

1990's MTV taught me how to do my first haircut.

Trying to think back, I'm pretty sure that it was during the summer between Sophomore and Junior year of High School in 1997 where I caught some episode of House of Style on MTV back when they played music videos, a few game shows, and nowhere near the amount of Reality-TV garbage that's on today. Anyway, I distinctly remember two hair-related tricks they aired on the episode:

1. how to make temporary dreadlocks: this was during the revival of the 'hippie' trends, so I'm sure this quick styling trick was just what the bored suburban white girls were totally getting into without the disgusting commitment to actually letting your hair knot up into actual  locks.

2. how to cut your own hair (guys)...

Now, back then my hair wasn't long enough to twist into fake dreadlocks, but the trick did stay with me for some years when I tried it out later in college, and then revived it for a soccer-hooligan themed rock show with my band. However, my hair did need to get cut, and I didn't have a car or driver's license at 15, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Okay, so I just realized the title of this post isn't entirely true. As early as 1994 my brother went out and bought a clipper kit from Walmart and we'd rock the long hair on the top and the #1 guard underneath on the sides. Every few months, we'd have to go see Bruce at the barber shop in downtown Lake Zurich to get our all-around haircut done, but we'd get by in-between at the comfort of our shared 2nd floor bathroom. 

So back to my 1st self-administered haircut: the technique they were showing on MTV was what I know now as 'One finger depth'. Aaand you may get all the gross sexually referenced gigglies out for a few seconds while I continue on with explaining how I was instructed to merely place my hands on my head with sections of hair peeking through my 1st and middle fingers, which would be cut just above where it sticks out from the space between the fingers. Eventually, I used my own sense of logic to use "two finger depth" at the top and side corners of the crown area while using blending shears to mix all the transitions together. When combined with having used clippers on my brother and myself, this began my unexpected journey to becoming the stylist I am today. And yes, I did cut myself quite a bit back in the day, but luckily, I was only using $15 shears from Sally's with 3.5inch blades, not the 6.5 inch razor sharp ones I so dearly love to rock out my clients with.