Rising to the follicle challenge

THE ART OF HAIRSTYLING

Your hair has a number of uses. Among them are keeping your head warm, ruining soup in restaurants and presenting you with an opportunity to introduce a bit of style into your life.

Other accessories which add style are bags, shoes, glasses and walks. Combine a stylish walk with a fancy new hairstyle which bounces and you’re well on your way to appearing in Vogue magazine.

The more hair you have, the greater the range of styles at your disposal. That’s not to say bald can’t be stylish because you can go for the neat shave, the comb over or the “denial” where you carry on as if your hair is growing normally and just have a number of empty patches on top. But it is better if you have something to work with.

Essentially, a good style begins with a good cut and that means bowls shouldn’t be involved.

Women understand that a hairstyle stays attached to them every minute of the day so they treat a decision on cut and colour with the respect it deserves.

Men generally stick to the cut they’ve had for their entire adult life and if they can, they’ll get it done for a fiver.

Follow celebrities and fashion by all means but know your own face. It might be that a really long fringe which covers it completely is the best plan. Once your hair is cut, mould, blow and style it in a way which showcases your personality but try to avoid using so much product that you have to peel the pillow off your head in a morning.

The thickness of your hair may prove significant. When I was a teenager I had ambitions of achieving the floppy curtains look like Hugh Grant but due to the inordinate strength and structure of my individual strands I looked like a mushroom.

I hoped the weight of the outer edges would eventually force it to flop down but it didn’t and when it caused my head to get wedged in the doorway of the youth club toilets, I decided it just looked silly so I had it permed instead. Eventually I settled on the classic ‘spike it up a bit’ style you seen in the picture above.

While it’s nice to find a hairstyle which you like so much that you can stick with it, a change now and again can often give you the feeling of a fresh start.

Woman, particularly, often choose a new style to perk themselves up a bit. Other women will notice immediately and gush whether it suits or not.

If it’s a really dramatic change, a fella may begin to suspect that something is different after a couple of days.


Next week… The Art of Waking Up.