Face shape, the all important consideration

I can’t say it often enough. The reason choosing a hair style from a magazine doesn’t work is because you are looking at a hairstyle that was designed for a face shape different from your own.

A hair style that looks dazzling on a heart face shape face may look hideous on someone with a round shaped face. A hairstyle that’s cute on someone else can make you look 6 inches shorter and 30 pounds heavier. Not a good plan.

Form and texture

Are you trying to make a haircut do things that it just naturally won’t do? It is very common for women to trying to defy the law of gravity for years, with hairdos that are not right for their hair form and texture. Why fight against your hair? Working with it will yield much better results. See my tips on form and texture.

You don’t really know yourself!

Do you remember the first time you heard yourself on an audio recording? That voice didn’t sound like you, did it? A similar distortion happens when you look into the mirror. You can’t see yourself as others see you. Your best friend knows what you really look like—you should depend on her opinion.

Your internal tape recorder

Our sensory acuity antenna is constantly on alert for reactions about who we are and how we look. Our memory stores any reaction or feedback regarding our looks. This includes both positive and negative reactions. We pick up the slightest of non-verbal cues. Over your lifetime, you have stored millions of bits of information about how you look, based on your interpretation of the reactions of others. Much of it is contradictory, often misread and just plain wrong.

Bad input carries a heavier weight in our memory banks than positive experiences. Is it any wonder we are confused when we arrive at the hair salon? One reason an outside party can be objective about your hair style is that their internal tape recorder is blank.

Our hairstyle biases

That’s right, we all have hair biases. Often I hear a woman tell me that she would never wear a certain style. When I ask her why, I get an answer like, “I just think that hair style looks terrible on me.” This is almost always a hair style bias talking. Maybe in the fourth grade she had a run-in with “Betty the Bully” and Betty wore a similar hair style. From the time of that experience forward, she is likely to carry around in her brain a bias against that hair style. She won’t consider it, even if it makes her look fabulous.

You may have the wrong hairdresser!

Maybe it’s time to end a long running relationship that has run out of creativity and ideas for your hairstyles. To move forward and find what works for you, a new hairdresser may be exactly what you need. See how to choose a new hairdresser. If you need to find a hair salon in Australia use the Australian Hair Salon Directory.

You’re listening to the wrong people!

Seek input on new hair styles from others. However, when you do, leave out your own opinion, or you will not get honest feedback. Don’t pre-frame others by telling them what you like and dislike before hearing what they like. Then, suppress the part of you that judges, and just LISTEN! You will learn things about your hair that you have never even considered.

Questions you should ask them!

• Will you be honest with me?
• What do you think my face shape is?
• What do you think is my strongest facial strength?
• What is my weakest facial feature?
• What color best describes my eyes?
• What is my skin tone?
• What hair color best describes my hair?
• Am I warm or cool?
• Should my hair style be longer?
• Should my hair style be shorter?
• Should I color my hair?
• Should I perm my hair?
• If you were me, and going to make a hair style change . . . what would you do?

Barb Quinn on Google+