i find myself illustrating more and more hair these days. i mean bigger and bigger. i think my frustration is battling to let loose. i want big moving waves that bounce with every step i take. tresses that take a life of their own whenever i nod my head.

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as we reach mid-year, let’s take a look at some of the most popular styles in the hair front.

1. the quiff

seen on the runways of oscar de la renta, max mara and l.a.m.b. among others, the new quiff, an exaggerated height that challenges elvis presley’s hair to a battle of blow-outs, is the new updo. take it from the many celebs who have embraced this hairstyle. it has redefined our use of holding products.

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i have fine hair which, though abundant, is difficult to style. i am in constant pursuit of methods to fix this problem, but i have always known that the first order of business is getting the right haircut. fortunately, i have found the “lightly-layered mid-length” style best for my hair type some three years ago, but i think i am ready for a new cut.

i found an article by victoria wurdinger of www.hairboutique.com which could certainly address my plight. below is an excerpt of the article “FINE HAIR SOLUTIONS: the lowdown on which cuts, styling techniques and products really work for fine and thinning hair” (photos from other sources).

There are certain hair cuts that make fine hair look lots better, but first, you should understand what fine hair really is, because it’s not necessarily thin. “Fine” refers to the diameter of a single strand. So, you can have fine hair that’s abundant, because you can have many individual strands per square inch.

You can also have fine and thin or thinning hair, which means you’ve got strands that are small in diameter and on top if it, you don’t have a lot of them. Age, diet, stress, medication and other factors can make fine but abundant hair begin to thin, and appear sparse in density.

While the degree to which hair is fine or both fine and sparse determines the best cut for you, as a general rule, it’s true that when hair is shorter and almost all a single length, it’ll look its fullest.

For this reason, the top five cuts for any type of fine hair are:

1. The Bob – in its thousands of variations. A short bob (ear-lobe length) made my hair look super-healthy and about twice as abundant as it really is. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for how it worked with my heart-shaped face. A longer bob was better.
   

   bob cut from www.short-hair-style.com

2. The Chop – in basic bob-length with irregular ends. It gave my fine, sparse hair both style and shape and was easy to maintain, when cut above the shoulders. It worked lots better than a totally blunt cut, which looked limp and lacked dimension.
   

   the chop from www.trendy-haircuts-hairstyles.blogspot.com

3. The Cap Cut – with its all-bangs approach. Best for petite or oval facial shapes.
   

   the cap cut (with irregular lengths) from www.hairfinder.com

4. The Crop – which really refers to any short, tapered cut. Crops look cool on younger women; if you’re over 45, watch out for what they do to your chin and neckline in profile. Also, short crops put so much focus on your eyes, they draw attention to less than flawless skin.
   

   the crop from www.ehairstyles.blogspot.com

5. The Lightly Layered Mid-length – You can go just to or even below the shoulder with a smart shape and regular trims. A cut like this, from Minardi Salon in NYC, is my best cut yet. It brushes my shoulders, is cut on a slightly diagonal-forward moving line at the sides and contains a few, light layers, which provide volume when I blow dry my hair.

lightly layered hair. photo from lifestyle.msn.com

• With some layers. While you can wear your hair to shoulder-length, or even longer if you wish, a few carefully cut layers will add fullness and dimension. However, if too may layers are cut in, the shape of the cut will collapse, which can make fine hair look thin and lifeless.
• With a custom-shaped perimeter. If you want to wear your hair longer, have the sides cut along a diagonal-forward moving line. Hair will be longest in front, the strong shape helps locks look thicker and the angle helps push hair forward. Also, hair cut on an angle is easy to turn under, which adds fullness. As an option, have just the long pieces that frame your face sliced on an angle, so hair turns inward below your chin. This gives your hair more shape than a longer blunt cut.
• With wisped ends. If you wear your hair to the shoulders or a bit longer, another option is to have the ends “notched” into or chiseled. This is an always popular look. It gives you a light, air feeling and ends can be turned up for a contemporary, irregular flip. The wispy ends of the chop actually help camouflage the fact hair is fine–especially when you need a trim.

If your hair is both fine and thin or thinning (sparse):

• Stylists say a short cut best, but how short is too short? This depends largely on your facial shape. If it’s round, go with a longer, short cut to slenderize your face. If it’s elongated, create the illusion of width with fullness at bottom. If it’s diamond-shaped, keep the length below widest part of your face. Of course, there are plenty of times you’ll want to break these old rules, which were created to “downplay flaws.” If you’ve got confidence and attitude, you can even look great highlighting a feature that has been traditionally downplayed.
• Wear your hair smooth and close to your head, with the ends flipped up or under. Try cuts that were intended to be worn behind your ears. This naturally makes it look like you’ve got more hair.
• Ask your stylist about variations on the Cap, Bowl and Crop cuts. Consider what bangs bring to the table, besides concealing a sparse, irregular front hairline. When the back is cropped super-short and the long front “bang” area is worn close to your head, you can go for a smooth style or add a few layers for texture. Imagine a cut with all the hair from crown brushed forward and cut into heavy bangs. You can trim the sides around your ears, leave wispy sideburns or let bangs continue into a softened bowl cut. A good stylist can blend the best elements of each of these cuts.
• An asymmetric style makes it look like you have more hair. The cut stacks up on the heavy side and lighter side is supposed to look like less. Tuck the lighter side behind your ear and all that fullness on heavier side stands out even more.
• The cardinal rule is “kept simple.” Consider a short cut that does not require much volume, or a longer look that gets its kick from a smooth, shiny surface.
• If like a longer look, get trims religiously. Fine hair looks its worst when it starts to lose the shape of the cut and the first sign is straggly, ragged ends.

read more from www.hairboutique.com.

there was a time in our mutating lives when we didn’t really mind who did our hair. we just barge into the nearest beauty parlor, find a seat, say we want a haircut, then the hairdresser takes care of the rest however way he wants to. if we didn’t like the result, we blame our hair for being too thin, too thick, stringy, frizzy, etc.

i myself have fine, stick straight hair. the kind that wouldn’t stay curled for more than an hour or two even if it has been subjected mercilessly to the baddest curling iron. through the years, my hair has only been either short or long, with no trace of whatever styling savvy. just plain old “two inches off”, maybe enough to get rid of split ends, if any. so i had boring hair, big deal.

here’s the story: most women i knew then with stick straight hair like mine had badly done layers. you know how those stringy, slicked down emo hair fall helplessly limp in irregular lengths? that’s how they look like in their natural state. i always thought it was our fine, lifeless hair’s fault. they just refused to behave themselves into jennifer aniston layers. i realized later that it’s not about the hair, it’s about the hairstyle. and it takes a pro to do it.

all i ever wanted were layers and structured sideswept bangs like penny’s in the big bang theory. was that so hard?! apparently, harder than i thought.

stop blaming your hair. it’s not their fault.

i took a while testing different salons and stylists. the challenge in experimenting with stylists is, unlike toothpaste or soap, you don’t get to test another one the very next day. if i didn’t like one stylist, i waited another six to eight weeks for my hair to grow out so i can go to someone else. so the entire procedure took three years, spread over a couple of salons and even more professionals. one thing i understood: each salon has plenty of pros, and not all of them will fix your hair exactly the way you describe it.

now i am loyal to basement salon. to cris in the shangri-la branch and to cherrie in the power plant branch. but to cris mostly for geographic reasons.

basement salon

here are the factors i considered in selecting a salon and stylist:

1. styling techniques and execution, of course. is he able to execute exactly how i imagined my hair to look? does he use only the tools i am willing to expose my hair to (e.g., i don’t like that razor-comb thingy they use. i notice i get split ends with it. unfortunately, not all salons have mastered fine layers using only scissors)?
2. comprehension and delivery. does he take the time and effort to listen and understand what i want? offering suggestions but not insisting on what he believes is right for me, allowing me make the final decision? i tried a stylist twice in another salon two years ago. he was excellent in the craft, but can be overbearing, insisting on what he wanted to do rather than what i wanted to happen. “miss, i have twenty years experience, i know what i’m doing.” to which i should have retorted, “but this is my hair!” but i didn’t because he might deliberately ruin my hair in spite.
3. service-mindedness and general service attitude. does he always remember to offer me the magazines of my choice? or refreshments? does he give instructions kindly to his assistants, not demanding nor putting them ill-at-ease?
4. follow-through. is he willing to accommodate me free of charge and with a smile if i need touch-ups or repairs after, say, a week has passed since he cut my hair? does he recognize me and remember my preferred style during subsequent visits?
5. location. is he based in a branch that is convenient for me to visit on a regular basis?
6. price. can i pay for the service without unnecessary financial sacrifice? because once you find the right stylist, you wouldn’t want to go anywhere else, believe me. it’s like your ob-gyn or surgeon. you trust them with your life.

each person has a different set of hair needs, so nobody can really tell you with full certainty which salon would be best for you. if you want to be serious about maintaining a consistently presentable hairstyle and establishing a working relationship with a stylist, you might want to experiment and salon-hop too. but be warned: there will be a number of times when you get unsatisfactory results, and the grow-out will simply feel tedious. cheer up, it’s all part of the learning process.

you can start your research online. some salons have the fees written on their website.

so if you have a favorite salon and stylist already, congratulations! if you want to find a salon and meet a stylist of your own, gather your courage to experiment. it’s all worth it in the end. good hair days are always worth it.