HAIR – Hello Victoria https://www.hellovictoriablog.com Lifestyle blog based in London, UK Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:13:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 TO FRINGE OR NOT TO FRINGE: DEBATING BABY BANGS https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/2018/11/30/to-fringe-or-not-to-fringe-debating-baby-bangs/ https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/2018/11/30/to-fringe-or-not-to-fringe-debating-baby-bangs/#respond Fri, 30 Nov 2018 04:33:00 +0000 https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/?p=440 Read more]]> Amazing short fringe via

Okay… random post time! So a number of years back (actually, just after I met Richard) I got a fringe (bangs) for the first time since I was a little kid. I had just been travelling for over three months and wanted a drastic change. However, my stylist told me to get bangs first, and then if I still wanted to get a bob, I could come back in a couple months. Man, I miss him… he always gave such great haircuts… I digress…

Back to the fringe! For some reason, all the parents in the 80s decided little girls should have bangs, and so my sisters and I spent what felt like years growing them out once we got old enough. I remember clipping them to either side and braiding them back. Other girls opted for butterfly clips (remember those?!) but I was a total tomboy. After all that agony of growing them out, I hated the very idea of a fringe.

Man, I love everything in this photo – it just screams the early 90s!

For their sake, I blurred out my family – ha! Also, I love my faces in old family portraits – I could never just smile nicely.

But when I first got bangs again at the age of 19, I looooved them! They just gave me such a different look and set off my cheekbones. However, my skin at that time was quite oily (something I’ve struggled with for years), and I would find that by 3pm they got all greasy, and I would have to wash them and dry them if I was going out that night.

So once my bangs started to become a bit long and get in my eyes, I decided to grow them out rather than trim them. I vowed never to get them again. (ha!) As you can imagine, about four years later I was bored with my hair and missed my fringe. I remembered how cool it looked, and stylish. I remembered all the good stuff and forgot the bad. So I got bangs again.

Fringe hair evolution | Hello Victoria

My first bangs on the left, the second set in the middle, and growing them out on the right. For some reason, these weird photos are the only ones I could find! I definitely need to get over being camera-shy. (Two out of three are in costume for some strange reason.)

This time wasn’t as bad! I learned how to trim them myself, which meant that they didn’t get in my eyes. I kept them for longer than the time before, but eventually, I grew them out. Again, I tried to remember the growing-out pains… so I wouldn’t get bored again and get a fringe. I even made Richard promise that if I ever started saying I wanted one, to tell me not to. I wanted to remember how much of a pain bangs become… not just how stylish they are.

Which brings me to now. I want bangs… bad! Richard has kept his end of the bargain and told me not to, but I’m not really listening.

This all started when I cut my hair short last October; I get bored if I haven’t done anything different in a while. So after growing it out for the better part of a year, I didn’t want to go short again. Buuut, I was bored with it. Then, for Hallowe’en, I decided to be a female Spock, which included a black wig with a short fringe. Man, did I love having bangs again! And funky short ones at that!

Female spock costume | Hello Victoria

See, I’ve been eyeing a short fringe for a while now, and having that wig just sealed it for me. They just look “cool”! A bit edgy, and funky… plus, if I don’t like them after a while, I can just grow them to a normal length.

Short bangs inspiration | Hello Victoria

Short fringe with a blunt lob via

Short wavy fringe via

But am I simply forgetting the pains of growing them out, and having to always tie them back to exercise (such a pain)… or am I simply willing to accept those annoyances? Is this a mature choice, or a deluded one? It’s just hair after all, right?

Okay, my silly rant is over… but I would love some feedback on whether or not I should get a baby fringe. Is it as cool as I think, or too risky? This is my dream haircut, but I’m not sure I am brave enough to get it.

Baby fringe inspiration | Hello Victoria

Shaggy haircut with short fringe via

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TO PERM OR NOT TO PERM https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/2017/05/05/perm-not-perm/ https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/2017/05/05/perm-not-perm/#respond Fri, 05 May 2017 23:44:00 +0000 https://www.hellovictoriablog.com/?p=198 Read more]]> We take a break from our regularly scheduled DIY/recipe/lifestyle blogging to talk about something on my mind…

When I was about 16 or 17, I discovered that with a little help from some product and a diffuser, I could get my hair to curl! Well, maybe more of a curly wave, but curly nonetheless! I had always been jealous of my sisters who had natural curls (shout-out to Bethany and Julia!) and was so excited to realize that there was this texture hidden in my hair.

Can modern perm techniques recreate long lost curls | Hello Victoria

Oh wow, 18-year-old Amy in all her no-makeup, no-eyebrows glory…

For a while, when I had the time, I would diffuse my hair – figuring out all sorts of tricks to get it to curl the way I wanted. But the problem with diffusing a full head of long hair? Time! When diffusing curly hair, you need your hair dryer on its lowest speed, with high heat, to get the best result.

Low Speed + High Heat = Eons of Drying Time

hate wet hair, so would never just let it air dry; which meant that when I was short on time, I had to go straight.

Then, a number of years back, some genius with a straightening iron discovered she could curl hair with it! Like most people, it took a bit of practice to get the hang of, but once I did, I could dry my hair and curl it with my straightening iron far faster than I could dry it with a diffuser. This method wasn’t just fast, but flawless! The problem with diffusing natural texture is that the hair doesn’t always cooperate. And so began my 2+ year love affair with straightener curls, which morphed into curling wand curls… etc.

Now, as you can probably imagine, all this straightening and curling with heat took its toll on my hair’s texture. When I had the time to curl it with a diffuser, it no longer seemed to cooperate. The curls were lifeless at best, and I was forced to touch it up with a curling iron to get anybody at all. All those years of straightening my hair had caused it to lose what I loved about it most.

Now, some people would probably be okay with this change, after all, it was easier to straighten, and I knew I could curl it with an iron if I wanted. But see, Richard looooooves my natural hair texture. Or at least, he loved what it was like before. We met while we were both volunteering in Nepal about 9 years ago, where I had no access to a diffuser or hair dryer. I brought a bit of mousse (or was it gel?) with me while traveling, and that was it. Not sure if it was the humidity or the lack of showering (hooray for natural hair oils!), but my hair never curled better than it did in Nepal. Sigh.

Can modern perm techniques recreate long lost curls | Hello Victoria

this is literally a photo taken after I swam in a dirty river with an elephant and air-dried my hair

And that’s the mental image Richard has of me after all these years – slightly tousled, but naturally curly (not to mention kind of dirty and gross… why did he fall for me?!) He loved my hair most because this was during the height of “poker straight” hair popularity – every other girl was going for Gwenyth Paltrow straight locks, and here I was sporting naturally curly brown hair.

Debating modern perm techniques | Hello Victoria

And of course, because he thinks I look so beautiful when I have my natural hair, I started to realize just how great it was to have natural texture.

So how do you get it back? I’ve tried regular haircuts to get rid of damage, reducing the amount of heat I use, heat protectant spray, etc… I can get some texture when my hair is shorter, but any weight makes it lifeless again.

Enter, the title for this post (it’s like a Harry Potter book, where you’re waiting to find out where the title comes from) and my search for a modern natural looking perm. Perms have come a long way since their 80’s heyday. Now, instead of just one roller size, you can get much larger natural-bouncy-curl sizes! The chemicals can even be ‘organic’ (apparently), and the result is much more modern. I’m not looking for a digital perm, as those don’t get up to the root of the hair (perfect for beach waves, not for what I want) but rather a traditional spiral perm, with large rollers in a couple of sizes. I want to get my curl back – can it be done?

Modern perm inspiration | Hello Victoria
Modern perm inspiration | Hello Victoria

Inspiration photos for the type of curl I am after

I’ve been trying to find a salon in greater London that has good reviews for a natural-looking perm (spiral not digital) but can’t seem to find any other than one craazzy expensive one. I may have to just try a place nearby and hope it’s good… but would you do that for something so permanent? Has anyone else lost their hair’s texture because of all the heat they use?

Okay, random rant is done – back to regular posts next week.

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