Why is my hair so boring?

I'm such a dummy when it comes to my hair. I have two ways of styling it: my hair down, sitting flatly on my back, or up in a high pony tail, and that's it. Yes, occasionally I get brave and try to improvise and create something a bit unconventional, but it never really looks any good. So I always end up returning to my old tried and tested ways.

 

I always wanted a French braid, a simple French braid, but I am completely incapable of creating one.

 

I love these hairstyles. They look very charming and feminine. I wish I could do something similar myself...

 

 

(this is unbelievably lovely, don't you agree?)

 

 

(love these snails, quirky but chic)

 

          

(1930s perky and cute)

 

They look simple enough to recreate. But after several attempts on those snails I'm afraid that the only way I could do it is by getting myself a personal hairstylist. Wouldn't that be nice? She would come to my house every morning and create me a dream hairdo of the day.

 

"Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself."  ~Hubert de Givenchy, Vogue, July 1985

 

Thanks Hubert, it appears that I am a complete mystery to myself.

 

xoxoxo

 

{photos via fffound, the snail and the cyclops, coco and kelly)

Comments

[Miss Absinthe]

OMG I'm soo the same way and can never get a braid right! Favorite hair accessory right now is a stick I wrap my hair in. It turns out different every time and is easy... :)

[just penneys]

I've been wearing a scarves wrapped around my head, (old hippy that I am)with a (boring) braided ponytail..I haven't been able to do the French braid either! I adore them!!!
..It's a good way to put a little color in my face!!!
Happy Monday!!
xo,
Penney

[Hazel]

Don't listent to old Hubert. Your hair is striking in its colour and simplicity.

I find the bottom picture rather aging. I was watching The Day of the Jackal and there's this woman who's supposed to be *older* (40)and she's got this god-awful wig on that makes her look 75 and makes me want to scream.

Keep on rocking your hair.
My hair is so fine it won't hold a style until I even get out the door.

[Susan]

ATTN TTT: overly-long comment, even with editing, due to lack of caffeine (or too much).

Well, I have a slightly different take from the lovely ladies above. I'd love to use the stick method but I've got so much hair (& no I'm not bragging, it severely limits hair accessory amusement...as in nothing like that works & linger longingly in front of the big hair doodad display at my neighborhood ULTA). And though I've not seen Penney in her scarves yet (will check her site for new pix soon), I bet she looks adorable in her scarves...I still love that look...just not on me.

So to the heart of zee matter.

ATTN to Tina:

No one, but no one, can do their own French braid--at least well. If they say they can, really well, they're, uh, dissembling. That's so much nicer than saying: liar-with-pants-on-fire! Unless I see it with my own eyes, I ain't buying it.

One glorious summer-into-autumn, years ago, my intern wanted to play 'beauty parlor' with my hair every morning. So I allowed Antoinette to French braid it. It was great & we had fun. I have a lot of hair (still) & she was so cute about it. After that (Antoinette went on to bigger & better things), occasionally a friend, a housemate, a sister would get the 'urge' to fix my hair. (Not that it's bad--it's probably my best feature.)

Every time someone said, longingly "Oh, I can't do that with my hair," I would answer (or still will): Neither can I, silly. Someone else does it. And it's not someone I summon to the apartment every a.m.! Then I ask them if they want me to braid their hair. (I do not ask strangers on the street, I just advise them, "teach a friend.")

Miss Tina T.: you have classic hair/style. Timeless. I've strayed now & again, over past 2 decades, to a great short cut based on a French Elle cover(pre-English language);but it costs too much to maintain (every 4-6 weeks it must be cut, non-negotiable), especially nowadays.

I ask you to look at people like Anjelica Huston. Classic. Look at the pix you love in TMuse's blog, even mine. Most of them are classic hair ladies, many of whom have hair very like yours...

So sayeth the women who, early in the a.m. in humid-DC, has of late worn spaniel-ear ponytails & before long it's 4pm. Hey, they curl up in the humidity. And unless I have to run out of here with the cat in her bag, due to emergency (almost last night when some neighbor-twit burned their curry beyond mere culinary disaster), I remain unashamed. Wear sunglasses & lipcolor & it's not so bad.

You would look fabulous with a French braid now & again. So my question is: hey Terry...surely you could do this for Tina? Once you master it, it's a breeze.

I can put up my hair in a slightly messy-on-purpose French twist. But it took my mother, a hairdresser, & a few years to master it. I still need a taped-pg of mag instructions to the mirror to remember . And I have to buy new tiny matching pins far too often--it takes close to 75 pins for my hair & about 10-15 long ones to finish up. You think I'm joking--I'm not--which is why this is not an everyday style. Plus, Julie the Cat steals the pins & hides them all over the place.

(She just swiped worry beads out of my purse & is sneaking off with them. Thinks I don't see her from around the corner. Sigh. Now, she's the one we should envy: red soft fur, everyone wants to pick her up, one great chic outfit, bright pink nose & matching paw-pads & inner ear tips.)But she doesn't have our cute bangs!

Now go teach Terry. Or a next-door-neighbor who is a likely suspect? You can do a trade of some sort. I'm not kidding.

xoxoxo, svs/giulia

[Susan]

Addendum: even for the messyish-on-purpose braids, you need two hands? Yes, yes. Yes.

[Margaret]

Those are really lovely! I say go for it and try them out:)

[jasmine]

none of those girls actually did their hair themselves! i can't do my own hair either. it only ever looks good when levi styles it for me....which is most of the time. :/

[nicole]

I often think this too... and then someone will randomly comment.. I love your hair.. and I will think.. who? Me?!

[hanako66]

oooooooh, thank you for the inspiration!

[kathleen]

Oh my...I adore those styles..all of them especially the first. I am doing my hari different today..thanks to you and this post!!! Yay! I am like you and just have the down or up thing going, I haven't been creative with my hair in awhile.