Good hair matters, but needn’t cost a heap

I’ve been writing a lot about personal style lately, and no series on style is complete without talking about hair. If you want to look great, you need to pay at least minimal attention to your hair because it’s such a noticeable part of your overall grooming. Straggly, unkempt hair tells the world that self-care activities are a low priority to you. In this time-poor age, we have to size each other up so quickly that appearances really do count.

As with all elements of personal style, good hair tells the world that you know and like yourself. A great hairstyle works with your hair’s natural texture, thickness, colour and type (straight/wavy/curly). It also has to suit your facial features, skin tone, body type, lifestyle and personality. In other words, it takes self-knowledge and self-acceptance to get there. It also takes a good hairdresser, to guide you towards a great style and then create it for you.

Personally, I splurge on hairdressing. I would rather go to someone fantastic a little less often than risk having a bad cheap haircut. I know that bad hair isn’t the end of the world, but once the hair’s chopped off or badly damaged, it takes a long time to grow out. For me, that can mean months of looking pretty dreadful. A bad cut can make my round face look really chubby; a bad colour can bring out my skin’s pink undertone to an alarming degree. I like to feel attractive, so for me, it’s worth spending the extra to go to a hairdresser who consistently makes me look my best.

I’m not saying that paying more guarantees the hairdresser will do a great job — I’ve had some shocking expensive haircuts — but every great hairdresser I’ve found charges a fair professional rate for their time. Brilliant bargain haircuts are hard to find in Sydney because great hairdressers are in demand; if someone’s good, they get a better-paid job in a more expensive salon and then they’re not so cheap any more.

If you don’t have a good hairdresser, the easiest way to find one is to ask someone you know who has great hair. I’ve found a couple of great hairdressers that way, and only one who did a bad job of my hair. Otherwise, it’s a matter of trial and error.

If you really can’t justify spending more on a good haircut, the simpler your hair style is, the more likely a budget hairdresser will be able to keep it looking great. Long, all-one-length hair only needs an occasional trim when the ends look a bit ratty, so there’s no need for anything fancier.

Now even though I have a generous budget for my haircuts, there are a lot of hair-related things I won’t splurge on. I know some very well-presented women have their hairdresser blowdry their hair regularly to keep it looking great; I just can’t justify the expense. I use a gentle drugstore shampoo rather than the salon version that costs twice the price, and it works fine for me. I only buy pricey styling products if they last so long that the cost-per-use is negligible… and I have exactly two different products in my bathroom. I’ve never spent a lot on a hairdryer; my cheap 1800W model’s only fancy feature is a cold air button. I even clip Mr Bargain Queen’s hair myself each month because paying someone else $15 to do it is silly when I do a better job than some barbers.

I’ve also made an effort to learn how to look after my hair myself — so much so that when I discussed hairstyling tricks with my new hairdresser, he said “you’re quite a pro, aren’t you?”. Me?!? I didn’t think I was the kind of girl who knows about hair. I only got into ‘girly’ stuff a couple of years ago, when I finished my Masters and finally felt free not to cultivate a stereotypical smart-person dishabille any more. Evidently, I’ve learned a lot since then!

Ironically, since I embraced my tragic hair-obsessive tendancies, I actually spend less time on my hair than I did when I was too intellectual to care. I know what works now, so I do that and then get on with other things, rather than wrestling with unmanageable, unkept hair for hours like I used to. If I’d realised that ‘work smart not hard’ applied to hair as well, I would’ve allowed myself to become vain far earlier than I did!

The end result of all this is that my hair generally looks good and compliments my personal style, without taking much time or money. I think that’s a pretty good outcome!