I will have to go to Montreal to get a hair cut as soon as I can get a free day. I decided that it is slowly time to wean myself from Coupe Bizarre by visiting Ottawa hair places until I find something I like.
I figured that being open-minded is the best way of finding another good hair shop. How wrong I was. I believe that the Ottawa hair industry is monopolized by Vidal Sassoon or whatever. When I go to a hairdresser I generally just have 3 requirements that I think any hairdresser worth his salt can run with. In fact many hairdressers I have visited in the past do (they all work for Coupe Bizzarre). These three requirements are:
Requirement 1: Has to be wash and wear – I don’t use hair products partially because ambidexterity required does not become me, partially because I don’t want to fund the industry thereby perpetuating the beauty myth and mostly because any dirt or grease landing on my face will cause boil sized pimples I’d rather live without.
Requirement 2: Has to be fun – otherwise I can just put a pot on my head and cut out whatever is visible. Or take a picture of a mediocre haircut and take it to First Choice Hair Cutters (for the non Ottawans, that’s the place where they put a pot on your head, cut the visible parts and charge you 10$ for it).
Requirement 3: The hair should be out of my face as much as possible. I am not too strict on this one. However, if I have to move the hair out of my face a lot, I get my face all greasy with my fingers and end up with the above mentioned zits. Plus it is really annoying while cooking or gardening or doing any activity where I need to see and my hands are too sticky or filthy to touch my hair.
Not too hard. I am generally really vague on length and absolutely silent on the style, which, I believe, leaves the hair dresser free to do any hair style they can think of (or know how to do).
At the hair place I went to this month, the hair dresser (and he seems to have been cutting hair for at least 20 years) told me that it is impossible to do a hair style where hair does not get into your eyes and cut my hair in a way that I have to put in half a can of hair spray to look like anything. Right now my haircut is so not fun it is sad. I have had a few bad hair cuts over they years, but noting that made me get another hair cut just to fix this one. I could post a picture but I don’t want any evidence of this atrocity lingering around.
I am now convinced that Ottawa is a monopoly of hair products. Anytime I go anywhere they keep giving me hairstyles that look crap without gunk. I figured that they either don’t know how to cut hair or they are forbidden to cut hair in a wash and wear style by the corporate interests. I hope these corporations never take over Coupe Bizzarre or I will have to buy a very shapely pot.
Why don’t you ask a friend, co-worker or other acquaintance of the female persuasion whose hair you enjoy and admire for a hairdresser recommendation? Heck, you could even ask a guy (my sister and I go to the same girl in the Pointe-Claire Village).
I’ve been doing this for years. I’ve asked co-workers, I’ve picked places out of yellow-pages, I’ve even asked random people at concerts. I’ve been to five different places with different results. Some aren’t bad in terms of skill, but the styles they do are pretty plain. Other places have great style but it takes 20 minutes for them to do the whole thing including shampoo and stlying (the best hair cut I’ve ever had took two hours) so the base is pretty flimsy and it grows out in a week.
The problem is that I prefer shortish hair for which both stlye and cutting skill have to be top notch or it just falls flat. I will probably try a few more places in Ottawa eventually, but right now I am so mad and discouraged due to the crappy haircut I have now that I just want to go to a place I trust.
In any case, Chris and I are going to be in Montreal this Saturday for just this purpose. If you feel like it (and this goes out to all of you other Montrealers reading this) why don’t you join us for brunch at 11:30ish – 12. We’re thinking Santropol.