A pointless poll

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1073595]

Comments

[lalwendeboggart.livejournal.com]

I am one of those rare women who hates going to the hairdressers. It always comes out covered in spray, costs a fortune and you have to endure someone inanely going on about their holidays in Tenerife for an hour while you sit there, vulnerable under the scissors.

I cut it meself and let the natural wave take care of the um...'style' ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I hate going to the hairdresser's too, but I've got a perm and I'm growing it (in fact, my default icon is a pretty good representation of my hair, though the face is the wrong shape), so I just go once a year to have the perm re-done. And I know what you mean about hairspray - it's definitely on my list of Substances To Be Avoided, along with air freshener.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Bweh?! That comment was from me - for some reason LJ logged me out.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I hate having my haircut too - now I have it done at a barbers who will also wet-cut women's hair. It's in Bush House, in Central London, which is why it's over 30 quid, but the guy who does it is great, cutting it exactly the way I want, and not sticking anything on it at all.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Not all that rare, I don't like it either and was talking at the school date yesterday with someone else who doesn't. However, my hair isn't long *because* I don't like the hairdresser, as I used to have it shorter/trimmed more often (and equally did not like the hairdressering experience much). We seem to have found a sensible place that doesn't wants to do anything other than what you simply ask for, although a new person a while back mentioned "texturise" and I thought better of it and cancelled the booking. I've had about 2 hairdressers in my whole life who I actively liked going to. Ah, no, make that one.

starts to reminisce

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

He was called Matthew, was also a whizz with the (at the time) little 'un, didn't say anything inane (was actually very with-it and hence went of to make his fortune). I want him back.

I'll raise you...

[mithalwen.livejournal.com]

I have never actually been to a proper hairdresser in my life.
First it was cut by a friend of my mum's in her kitchen, then by a friend of my sisters in the living room and since she got her degree and hairdressing nis beneath her - I just chop bits off with desk/kitchen scissors when it gets too annoying.
I keep meaning to try this place where they give you a glass of wine to ease the stree - Ithink there it will be £28.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Why do you ask? As it happens, I forgot to make another appointment when I last had mine cut, so it's long overdue. It's getting cut on Monday. Since I was about 13, I have had a) the same haircut (admittedly now with rather less hair) and b) only three hairdressers.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Why yes, I do work in central London and wish not to be processed by the marginally cheaper hairdressers of suburbia. In a land of straight or curly haired women who don't mind perming or tonging or blonding, the wavy dark haired who do are up the proverbial creek. So I bite the bullet and get an expensive cut that doesn't require a lot of time spent on it in between cuts. (Oh, and I don't grow it out because it makes me look like Jesus. Great role model, lousy fashion sense.)

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"What would Jesus do?"


Mullet, hippy beard & moustache combo apparently. Oh, and he wore a dress.

Still more stylish than Buddha.

As for Mohammed, well we'll never know because you can never see pictures. He must have had a beard though, because I've seen some actual hairs from it...

[estelyn-strider.livejournal.com]

Ah, but which currency do you mean?! I get my hair cut in €...

[wryelle.livejournal.com]

I ticked less often as I went several years without bothering and just scraping back my long hair. Only recently have I taken to actually having a haircut again. I paid about 40 quid from an (actually very good) local hairdressers, which I consider very cheap as I have lowlights too. I've known friends (ok - a particular friend) pay three figure sums for cuts involving color, so your 50 upper limit made me smile.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I confess I also nodded wisely at the naiveté of the £50 upper cut-off. A few years ago I was getting my hair done for £16 at the student union, and she was all right for medium length, but we both agreed it didn't suit me very well and the shorter the hair got, the more unmanageable it became until I more than doubled my haircut spend.

My current expensive hairdresser at least comes with "complimentary" head massage. A gimmick, I thought, but if I'd been a lesbian I'd have proposed to the woman on the basis of that massage! And my head smelled of lavender for days.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Mark another one down for "clearly this poll was written by a man" re. the £50 upper limit.

The head massage sounds like bliss!

I ticked every two to three months, which is indeed how often I mean to go, but in reality it is more like every three to four months at best, due to a collaboration of factors including dislike of phoning people to make appointments, general procrastination syndrome, frequency of not actually feeling up to it, difficulty of finding the time to go, even greater difficulty of managing to find someone to babymind at a time when appropriate appointment can be made, etc.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Mark another one down for "clearly this poll was written by a man" re. the £50 upper limit.

Yes, I admit it, I'm a man ... ;-)

[sally_maria]

I like the effect after I've had my hair done, but don't have a lot of patience with the process. Add that to the fact that I hate making appointments for anything, and getting my hair cut is not one of my favourite things.

I get round the second problem by going to one of those turn up and wait your turn places - I have a book, I don't care if I have to sit there for half an hour. All I need is a straight forward cut, and maybe blow dry anyway, I like my hair the colour it is, and I don't have the patience to faff with it on a daily basis.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Will some woman explain straighteners to me?

What is it that drives perfectly attractive, perfectly sensible young women with naturally wavy hair to completely flatten it in the mistaken belief that this is a) more attractive and b) more fashionable?

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I wish I could explain it, but I haven't a clue. I think it's horrid.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a young woman, my hair is very curly, and I don't straighten it because it makes it look very dull and thin, but for other women with thick hair that gets huge, or straightish hair that just has a kink in it and doesn't lie well, then straightening can give a neat style that keeps in order all day and doesn't look a mess. If the choice is straighten or else be unable to maintain a style that is neither elbow length now ear length, then straightening makes sense. I'd say that there is a difference between this kind of grooming and thoughtlessly adhering to a particular style whether it suits one or not, which happens both with straighteners and with perms.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I also don't straighten it because it suits me and I like having curly hair, thought I wish the damn stuff would grow a bit.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

OK - that makes some sort of sense. Thanks for that.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

The straight hair fashion is doing me favours though :) I agree, though, looks dodgy on most people. Add a bit of bleach and it's even dodgier. However, they like it like that so who I am to judge, my "hairdo" is nowt to write home about either.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I don't see the appeal of the bone-straight long stringy look so fashionable these days. But speaking as someone whose hair is wavy in the worst possible way - mostly flat but sticking out randomly and unflatteringly at the bottom inch or two, rather like an electrocuted cat dragged through a hedge - I can totally see the appeal of straighter hair. But getting sizzling hot irons that close to my ears.... no.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but is the 'bone-straight long stringy look' that fashionable anyway? Admittedly my magazines of choice are PC Gamer and Edge rather than Vogue or Cosmo, but when I do see fashion spreads, it seems to me that at the moment, all the models have long wavy or curly hair. The long, stringy look belongs to wannabe WAGs and Big Brother contestants.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

$40, two or three times a year. I can go back after a month or so and have it trimmed for nothing. I wear it very short, so it still looks good after 4-6 months with a minimum of maintenance from me. I don't colour it.

[chris-maslen.livejournal.com]

I get mine cut about once every month and occasionally get it coloured (cos I'm a tart and I like having jet black hair) but thenit costs 15 quid not 6.

I do like being a bloke sometimes.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Eni's approach to haircuts:
1. Drink lots of Port. Red wine will do at a pinch.
2. Take a shower.
3. Take a pair of DIY scissors.
4. Hack off some hair.
5. Stumble out and ask flatmates if it's straight.
6. Hack off some more hair.
7. Call it a night and rectify minor asymmetries in the morning.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

I ticked 5 as it's actually £7 which is nearer 5 than 10. :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I have dark curly hair, rather like that of Alan Davies or Simon Rattle. It grows slowly, and falls out before it gets long - I did not have it cut for 7 years whilst trying to grow it, and it never reached my shoulders unless wet. Because these days I try and keep it vaguely styled, I get it done 2 or 3 times a year when I am in the north. I cannot straighten it, because it makes me look like the Princess Royal, and because it is genuinely curly it just looks dead.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Last time I looked, Simon Rattle did not have dark curly hair (it was silvery I thought? unless that was a lighting effect or some other random bloke), nor was it like Alan Davies'. However, both goodish hair-looks IMO and hence yours must be too.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Well these days Rattle is getting on a bit, and indeed is rather silver in tone :-) But back when I first saw him (on TV) in the early 1990s he had gloriously curly dark locks! (http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/8c/300px-Simon_Rattle.png)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I detest having my hair cut. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I cannot comprehend why so many women like it. Having some stranger poke around at me... Ick! And they're always so young and trendy, and I can just feel them sneering silently at my untrendy geekiness. (And, on a similar subject, when I see competitions offering a "pamper session" as a prize, I shudder, since it's my idea of a nightmare some perky blonde doing stuff to my hands or feet or hair.)

My solution is like someone else said above: Alcohol, scissors... then wear it up so no-one can tell that it's irregular and uneven. Well, they probably can, but I don't really care. I should go one to the hairdressers' one day, though...

[asklepia.livejournal.com]

Mine's long so I just go along once or twice a year and get a few inches cut off. I like going to the hairdresser - I get lovely scalp massages. My only trouble is having to remember to book six weeks ahead because because he gets really busy on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

[miss-t-ide.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking that I really need to get my fringe cut, at least. Need to find a hairdresser in Cambridge that I can trust... No idea what the going rate for a cut and blow dry is round here. I work in Mayfair, so I don't think I'll be shelling out for a haircut in my lunch break..!

[gabriel-chase.livejournal.com]

I don't like having my hair cut because I look ghastly in the mirror. When I lean back in my chair and then can't move my head it's time to have it cut: 4-6 inches off twice a year or so. Always go to the same place which charges £10 no appointment, and I never let them do anything to it other than wash and cut it - no blowdry!

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

I get at least a trim every couple of months, at $20 a pop (so I guess I should have ticked "10," as you're working in pounds). And I don't bother with the fancy place; the no-appointment one will do (do you have the "Hair Cuttery" chain in Britain?).

Now for the confession: I love going for a haircut, and, if I were rich, I'd hit the hairdresser's every week just for the fun of having my hair washed by someone else (I really heard myself in the commenter above who swooned over that head massage). The fact is, I'm not someone who ordinarily fusses much over herself-- my usual routine is to wash my hair and let it air-dry while getting on with life-- so I'm happy to let myself enjoy being fussed over when the opportunity arises. Which means, yeah, that $20 includes the optional extra après-cut styling. Luckily, my curly locks can stand up to being moussed, blow-dried, hair-sprayed... the whole nine yards. (Remember 80s hair? I'd have it, if the 20-something beauticians at the shop could bring themselves to do it. Maybe they're afraid a spectacular do would show up the rest of my frumpy, middle-aged self!)

[mrkinch.livejournal.com]

I halved my dollar expenditure in an attempt to fit in. I really hate spending the money, but eventually I just can't stand it anymore.

[chainmailmaiden]

I used to hate having my hair cut, but since I found a very nice hairdresser in Carlisle I get my hair cut when I go to visit my parents. It's far cheaper than London haircuts, and they have chocolates for you to eat while you wait.

When Bacchus was out of work a few years ago I tried to encourage him to take up a hairdressing course at college. I quite fancied being able to have free haircuts at home, but he never got round to it. He is lucky, I cut his hair for free, whenever he wants. In fact if anyone else ever wants a free haircut I'd be happy to oblige providing you want it done with clippers. I can do the full range from a 0 to a number 6 :-)

[lalwendeboggart.livejournal.com]

Best haircut I ever had, seriously, was when my mate Jim sellotaped my hair to one of those curved back traditional pine chairs in his mum's kitchen. He then used the chair back as a 'guide' to cut along. My hair looked great afterwards! Note - this is only useful if you are planning to cut off very long hair and make it shoulder length ;)

I never straighten mine, I just have to keep it damp or slathered in 'hair serum' to keep the waves as it's like Hermione Granger's hair otherwise...

[romancinger.livejournal.com]

I splashed out £15 (pensioner's rate!) on a haircut - just the cut - last week. I went to the best hairdresser in town, because with a 4cm bald spot to cover, I needed someone good. And she was; did a lovely job, exactly what I asked for. Except, like all modern hairdressers, she smoothed it down flat - which has never suited me, and suits very few other people, in my opinion. But it doesn't matter, I can simply do what I want with it once I get home. I rather like having my hair cut; I just wish they wouldn't expect me to make conversation. I prefer to meditate!

PS

[romancinger.livejournal.com]

My other half never pays anything for a haircut - I do it (he says) better than any barber. And I cut my own fringe, and the bits at the sides sometimes.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Oh and for your info mine is "A short back and sides, no.3 trimmer for the sides" with now and then "a little off the top"

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

No.3? I get the same, but a No.4.

Though I think I going to need to start getting them to taper the front in as well as the back. ;-)