I am a lover of big hair. As a 5ft tall ginger I spent most of my time in sixth form with a comb in one hand and a can of Elnett in the other, backcombing and backcombing until my hair couldn’t take it any longer and I’d reached the dizzy heights of 5ft2. I’ve tried every big-hair-hairstyle around.
In 2010 I worked a towering messy bun most days; pulling my hair into a high pony tail, backcombing the pony until it was vertical and pinning it loosely in place with grips. In 2011 I transitioned to the style my art teacher described as “the fox den”; using an assortment of little grips combined with a large metal clip which was so lethal I’m still shocked I got it through customs. I would backcomb my hair as big as it would go and then clip it chaotically until I looked like I’d recently been pulled through a hedge. In 2012 my move to university was accompanied by a refusal to leave my room without a huge messy beehive. So much so that a male flat mate once asked, whilst patting the mountain of hair on my head, whether my hair naturally grew like that. In 2013 I felt I’d matured to a more sophisticated evening look, using heated rollers to curl my hair and then promptly backcombing the results. However I’m now aware that much of the appeal of this look, and the feeling of sophistication, comes from the fact that I can swan around my house in a silk dressing gown with a full face of makeup and a head full of rollers feeling like a ginger Marilyn Monroe.
The one look I have never tried is straight. Or neat for that matter. My hair never looks tidy, it just doesn’t work. I envy the people whose hair is glossy and groomed, never falling out of place or succumbing to the effects of the weather. My hair on the other hand, has a mind of its own. It’s a free spirit, wild and adventurous in a way I always wish I could be but never quite live up to. In the sixth form confines of my suit and heels I felt my hair was a sign of dress-code rebellion. I once heard that a woman with big hair has lots of secrets (I think that’s from Mean Girls) and I liked that idea, I wanted to be a woman with exciting secrets and private adventures.
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But 2014 brings with it the prospect of graduation, the real world, jobs, careers and prospects (potentially). As my hair grows with my apparent maturity, I want a style that whispers “I’m an adult, I’m serious, please employ me”. Mine currently just demands the question “what happened to you last night?!”. So I’ve decided that with a new year comes a new style, more radical than any I’ve tried before (to me at least). I’ve decided to try… straight hair.
Promptly after making this decision I realised if I was going to try this, I had to do it properly. No messing around with shoddy products and pretending I’m straightening it with a hair dryer. It was go big or go home (well not really). So with sorrow I placed my reliable backcombing comb at the back of the draw and with trepidation selected my new hair friend: GHD v gold. If like me, you are new to the world of straightners, Argos is a great place to start- not only do they have plenty of styles to choose from but they offer a FREE click and collect service which as a student is just brilliant. Check out Argos’ fantastic range of GHDs and other straightners here.
GHD wasn’t like my old hair friends. It was serious, sophisticated. I’d dabbled with straighteners before, stealing my mums old set or quickly borrowing a friends in an emergency, but I’d never had my own pair, never really tried them out. Having my own was definitely better. As they heated up in my hands I felt excited at the prospect of the new-me I would see in the mirror. A new, sophisticated me.
When I’ve straightened my hair before it’s been a bit of a mission; layers and layers of ginger hair having to be re-ironed 100 times before my hair looks straight. But using the GHD’s was different, it was much quicker and it was reassuring to have no whiff of the burning smell I’ve had before. It didn’t take long to do my entire head of hair but I still hadn’t looked in the mirror.
When I did the first thing I thought is that I definitely need a haircut; my hair appeared to grow about 5 inches. But despite that, I liked it. Sort of. It was new and different. Definitely sleeker and glossier’ almost instantly in better condition. I kept on running my hands through it, something I’ve never been able to do with my previous styles. I smiled, satisfied, and went on to get ready for Timepiece.
I was really pleased with my new hair but worries about what might happen after dancing, drinking and rain did make me sneak my backcombing comb into my bag before I left the door (I had a little backcomb too). After numerous £2 Coors Lights I confess that I did resort to a few backcombing sessions in the toilet, but to my surprise straight hair and big hair aren’t mutually exclusive. By the time I dragged my ginger head home I was fully enjoying the combination of sleek and straight with a hidden bounce. Amazingly my usually wild hair stayed straight all evening, despite the rain and dancing!
So, in conclusion, I predict that my hair story for 2014 will be smooth and sleek, straightened with GHD’s; a look that says professional, adult and glamorous. But I won’t be abandoning my comb anytime soon… a girl still wants to have secrets.
Image Credits: hairhousewarehouse; glamour.com