I have never had my hair professionally put up. Not once. Ever. But Mobeen adn Fiona at Stephen Marr decided to loosely pull it all back into the nap of my neck and stitch it into place. Yep. You heard me – stitch it into place!
I have never had my hair professionally put up. Not once. Ever.
There is one very good reason for this – aside from the fact that I am not ‘that kind of girl,’ I have had exceptional short hair for the last 20 years.
I have had my hair coloured, straightened, bleached, rolled, curled and back combed though over the years. The closest I have ever come to a glamorous hair do was for my wedding many moons ago when I grew my hair out a bit (enough so we could put rollers in it), and Stephen Marr did my hair as a wedding present. Nice.
But that is it. Until I decided to grow my hair out a year ago. We were stunned to find that after three children, and 20 years of short hair, that my hair had gone wildly curly! Who knew! So now it is a mass of shoulder length black curls. It is a mop at the best of times, but essentially it is a reflection of me, so I have stopped trying to fight it (my one try at straightening it all was truly frightening!) and just decided to go with it.
So imagine my horror at the thought of trying to do something with ‘the mop’ for the Stella Artois Raceday. I decided I definitely couldn’t be trusted to try and fix said issue all by myself! Luckily I found myself in the capable (and very charming) hands of Fiona and Mobeen at Stephen Marr in Newmarket.
I have to be honest, I don’t really see myself as a ‘raceday’ sort of girl – and the thought of stepping out of my uniform black was more than a little unsettling. I managed to find a drape-y red dress from Kingan-Jones, and dig out some strappy Costume National shoes as an outfit. If I was going to the races, it was at least going to be in my own way! I don’t do hats (I have a straw hat for the beach and that is it), so I decided on a hair slide with black feathers would be about as far as I was willing to go.
So I let Mobeen and Fiona know what I was wearing, and it just went very quickly from there. They decided to just work with the curls, and I had assumed that they would just pile them all on the top of my head (and this was essentially what I was afraid of!), but they decided to loosely pull it all back into the nap of my neck and stitch it into place. Yep. You heard me – stitch it into place!
No need for bobby pins, and it would stay in all day! So they firstly worked on the curl, adding product to essentially beef up my naturally fine hair. Then they went to town with the curling tongs (like I needed any more curl) until the mop was a mop on steroids. Then they gently pulled it all back and stitched it into place. It was an easy process, and surprisingly quick.
A few extra bobby pins, and my feather comb, a last spray of product to keep everything in place, and we were done. They somehow managed to make me look glamorous, relaxed, girly, and a little edgy all at once. That was a tall order for my hair. In retrospect it helped a lot that Mobeen (who has been cutting my hair for several years), knew me, and the choice of what to do with my hair was pretty obvious to him.
If you are getting a hair up for a special occasion, most salons are very happy to talk it through with you BEFORE the big day, and if you have pictures, take them along. With REALLY big days (i.e. weddings), a practice hair up is definitely in order.
All in all it was a very easy experience – and I would definitely do it again! But I won’t be trying it at home anytime soon…
By Anya Brighouse, 10 March 2010.
Leave a Reply