August 3, 2009

hairy chronology

not to be confused with harry potter =P~~~

in one of my previous posts, i rambled on and on about how i wanted to change the way my hair looked. i never really cared about my hair until after i left high school and entered Uni, where i was conscious of the other prettier and berisier girls around me (which only meant one thing: competition! bwahahahhaha). my friend Shasha dedicated one whole entry to me on her blog, which got me thinking about all the hairstyles i've ever sported back in Uni. which in turn gave me an idea to write a blog entry about my hair. haha.

i take after my mom, my hair is the wavy type, well, not only just wavy, but it's also on the 'kembang' side so it gets really difficult to tame on some days. each time i go to the hairdresser for a haircut the stylist will always without fail tell me that my hair is 'dry', and ' awak nak buat treatment tak? murah saja!!!'. hmph. IMO treatments don't do much difference unless you're willing to spend big bucks on a monthly basis. i wasn't one to handle hairdryers by myself (only if i have to, and the number of times can be counted off my hand. on another note, Significant Other uses the hairdryer to dry his feet). i wasn't one to single-handedly handle a straightening iron on my hair, being afraid that i would actually singe off my hair, being inexperienced and all. basically i was looking for a low-maintenance hairstyle, of which i could just get up from bed and walk straight out the door without having to worry about how my hair looked.

i tried dyeing my hair a couple of times, DIY. wella used to have a color in Blue Black which i really liked because apart from the jet black color, your hair will also show a hint of blue under the sunlight. i got adventurous and even tried reddish tones, but the DIY dye job was so horrible, only the top part of my head look like it was dyed - mcm jambul - and i got nicknamed 'joe jambul' by my roommate in the process. ahahahahah! i didn't really like dyeing my hair that often because i noticed my hair would become dry after each color job.

i tried highlights instead, so at least some of my hair strands would be spared from the chemical process, lol (what deduction is this? boleh pakai kah? O_o). so far highlighting has agreed with me. i usually highlight my hair back home at London, in City Plaza. by far it's my usual place to get a haircut (when i was still residing up north that is). my whole family gets their hair cut there.

my hair with highlights

i tried side parting for a different type of look. but i have stubborn hair which will eventually resume its original parting position. remember nora danish's look? until now i have no idea how to carry out the look. i tried cutting a little fringe too but i dunno, it didn't really work out for me. maybe i wasn't really trying though. according to my friend you need 21 days to secure a habit. meaning you need to repeatedly do the same thing for 21 days nonstop before it becomes part of your daily routine (without having it to feel awkward after that).

i chopped off my locks sometime during my second semester in Uni. i got no idea what compelled me to do this. despite my friends telling me short hair was easy to take care of, i wasn't a fan of short hair mainly due to the fact that my hair loses weight when it's short so hence, the extra 'volume' that i don't need. if i remember correctly i told the stylist i wanted it to be a above shoulder length, but the stylist sorta accidentally snipped of a few centimeters extra and in the end decided to model my head after hers, gwahhhhhhh! *shudders*. how i regretted that 'do. i hated my hair for almost a year. i kept praying my hair would grow back faster. the only accessory i wore were headbands and hair clips to keep my hair in place. my hair grew back... eventually.
[photo will be added later - i need to browse through my albums. at that time i was still using the analog camera =P]

back in university, i remember seeing some of the girls with straight hair and wishing my hair was as lovely as theirs. i first noticed my friend Najua during our orientation week because of her really long straight hair, boleh takkkkk (but also mainly because she reminded me alot of my friend Fabby who was also accepted into my Uni but declined to opt for overseas instead). anyway, ask most of the boys and they'll tell you they prefer girls with straight hair, yada yada (how stereotypical of them). betul ka?

so i decided to get my hair straightened. i can't really remember when i first did it though (i have to look up my old photos to determine the time frame). for the end result i really liked how my hair turned out, all nice and sleek, it wasn't unnaturally poker straight like some of the girls who straightened theirs and ended up looking really stiff and fake IMO. i did this on a yearly basis because i didn't want to further damage my dry hair by subjecting it to hot irons and goodness-knows-what chemicals too often. which was fine with me. my hair stayed looking nice throughout the year *suka suka*.

during my straight hair days

the two reasons why i like my poker straight hair is because 1) no fuss and 2) my hair can really kembang. one hair issue i had to endure was the occasional split ends. i'd comb through my hair looking for them until i get cross eyed. hehe. and another thing with straight hair is you lose all hair volume. which is why i ventured into perming.

yeah, i've tried perming too. the last perm if you peeps can remember didn't really meet my requirement, it didn't achieve the look that i was going for =(. i chose to go for curly after i completed my industrial internship. i already knew what i wanted in mind. there are two types of curls that i know of, one is the maggi mee kind, the other is the goldilocks kind. i was more interested in the latter, and i was trying to get the top-straight, bottom-curly kind of look, to give my hair some volume compared to poker-straight. celebrities were donning the look at the time and i thought i look great - i just didn't know if theirs were the temporary or permanent type. i decided to get it done permanently so that i wouldn't have to waste my time every morning trying to achieve the look.

i curled my hair at this new hair salon in Batu Gajah as i was itching to go for it there and then. the end result? wasn't what i was looking for. but it was nice all the same, something slightly different. my hair length was still the same, but the bottom half was curly, wavy style. i have photos of this hairstyle taken during the gamelan trip to Hotel Istana =).

curly hair, part One

for some reason i wasn't satisfied with how my hair turned out - stupid me - so you know what i did? during one of my visits back home i decided to risk it and with my roommate in tow, i re-curled my hair. O_O. this time the stylist decided to experiment with my hair, he was so excited i think i was made to be his pet project or something. he cut my hair into layered levels, and my curls were almost to my scalp. and i had to put double amount of gunk in my hair for the upkeep. if you didn't notice my 'curls' then, you'd definitely notice it now T_T.

nightmare on Curl Street Part 2

the maintenance that came after that? pure hell ok. apparently curly hair needs more maintenance otherwise your hair will look frizzed and dried out. i had to scrunch hair cream into my curls every often or so to keep it looking nice and sleek. and how was i supposed to know that you shouldn't brush your curls out, or risk end up looking like a Sasquatch? i tried combing out my curls in the shower, but they only sprung back into frizzier curls. and the weather at Uni was really hot and humid, i felt like i needed to rinse my hair out very often!

a view from the side. i used to love my tack board =D. see the housemates photo stuck up there?

one day i decided i couldn't take it any longer so i went to another hair salon in Batu Gajah and had it re straightened. but due to my different hair lengths the stylist had to cut it based on the shortest hair strand, so i was back with poker-straight shoulder-length hair =(. it was the very same hairstyle i sported during my graduation (which reminds me, the kebarung i wore for my graduation has gone missing! gwah).

my Graduation look. with cousin Nedd

i like long hair. i just don't have the patience to keep it long. and as my hair grows long, my face feels long. and then i start to look old. and lasam. then i decided to go see a hair stylist and the whole cycle starts again. haha.

my hair got really long when i was pregnant because someone said it was taboo to go to a hairdresser during pregnancy (i went anyway for a quick trim =P). hair grows really fast during this time due to all the hormonal imbalances =D. but during confinement i neglected my hair and it got to a point where i had to chop my hair for easier maintenance. so... back to shoulder-length again peeps. haha. see how boring my hairstyles are? i always go back to the same boring look (i'm reminded of Significant Other who's been sporting the same look ever since high school, and that's for a really long time, haha, tu baru dipanggil signature look! kah kah).

the most recent haircut i went for was shoulder length - again - sometime earlier this year, because i wanted to achieve the ever-so-pretty Marina's look (the time when she had it cut short due to bad ends, as she told me). but she had a different face shape from mine, so she pulled off the look, and i didn't. hahahaha. then i had it straightened just before my trip to Jakarta in March earlier this year.

shasha suggested going for a digital perm to stray away from my 'signature' look, as she calls it. hmm. i've never thought of it that way. haha. frankly the perms i did previously? i have no idea what type of perm they were, i hentam saja hahahahahhaha. as of now i already get comments that i look 8 years younger than my age, lol. probably if i do digital perm i might look older, haha. anyway, that's what i plan to do with my hair once it grows longer. i still feel my hair is a bit on the short side to perm, but the thought of digital perm is still on my mind. come to think of it, my hair is already medium length, kan? so now i just need to wait for proper funds before i can do it =P.

would anyone be kind enough to suggest the 'where', and is within reasonable budget? i wouldn't spend rm600 on my head like one of my former colleague did. but her end result was stunning, she looked wayyy older than her age (me and her were labeled as small kids last time in the office, lol). at the moment my hair is a shocking red. highlights actually. i didn't imagine it to be this red. so that's the end of my hairy tale.

btw, sha, your hair dah panjang mana ah? keeping it long for the future wedding looming ahead? ;)

4 comments:

. said...

oh ya.. i ingat masa u perm ur hair.. i was like.. eh this is so not lily, then x lama lepas tuh nampak all straight n sleek again.. ha, now that's lily..

my hair is more towards straight but kembang.. dang! n degil too.. nak wat side parting mmg tableh end up middle parting jugak.. same prob as urs.. tgk org side parting cantik jer :(

i think i pun have the same hairstyle dr dulu.. i've tried perming too & i can't stand it.. seminggu jer after that i went to hairdresser to straigthening it back n as usual the split ends menyerang!

at one time i am so fed up with my look i opt for boycut, i dun mind but my hubby (then bf) went beserk after looking at my hair..since then dia sure temankan i kalau gi hairdresser.. takut i wat keje gila :P

E`n1x said...

ur hair kembang meh? nice je ur hair, naturally straight =D. perming is kinda like a temp phase. i remember dulu Marina pernah curly, Shasha pun at one time tried curly, but i tak sure if i ever saw u in curly, or was that my imagination =P

. said...

seminggu jer i curl so basically u x sempat nampak :P

Maneesa said...

hi lily!!
So have you decide which hairstyle to opt for ??? cant wait for that!!

My hair hmm the lenght is almost reaching my breast so i still got months before reach my target - the waist.hahah if i can tahan the temptation.

and yes its for the wedding konon2 ala2 greekgoddess :P