Portlanders, Hairdresser Help Please!

Before getting into the dire need to find a good hairdresser to take care of the craziness that lives on top of my head, I would like to say Whoo-Ha last post was my 100th post! I’d planned a big celebratory thing with balloons and slinkies and things, but it slipped right by unnoticed until I went into my blog account today and saw the happy news. 100 posts. And this is 101.

Now to the important bits of this post which is a dire request for hairdresser suggestions. I got my haircut mid-move without doing as much research as I normally would (and that those of us with crazy hair need to do) and ended up with a haircut that is not one of my best. It is also not one of the worst, heck, it’s not even the worst this year, but it is definitely lacking in a certain something. Style might be the word I’m looking for. Also, there’s a Little Orphan Annie-ness that I try to avoid that seems to have sprung up with this new do. It requires much mashing down etc. to keep it in line and I’m planning to look into hats until the next cut, but when I do go for the next cut (which will be a bit, I need to do some growing out first!), I would like to be prepared.

Any suggestions? Greatest hairdressers in Portland ever? Specializing in crazy hair? Nice to talk to, doesn’t skulk around bat-like giving disparaging glances?

Also, I am not fond of hairdressers who complain about how grotesquely heavy my head is when it’s wet (nothing I can do about this) or say that my hair looks like a “horse’s tail” (true quote). I prefer euphemisms and excited for the challenge type attitudes.

I suddenly have this feeling that I am like those sad children in the Mary Poppins film who think they can write up their  nanny requirements and expect their dream nanny to float down from the sky. Except she did, didn’t she?

I might try putting my req’s to music to see if it helps.

Any suggestions out there? Do you have the Mary Poppins of hairdressers?

Bridget

10 replies on “Portlanders, Hairdresser Help Please!”

  1. Oh my god, you make me laugh. I wish I could help you find your dream hairdresser… but I don’t know Portland. Instead I can offer this (weird) advice: If you want your hair to grow out faster, start taking prenatal vitamins. I thought pregnancy made your hair grow faster, but my hairdresser tells me it’s the vitamins. So there’s something…

  2. You have the wisest hairdresser — I still laugh about her telling you that just because you’re a mom doesn’t mean you have to have bad hair.
    I don’t know if I could take prenatal vitamins — it seems like bad voodoo/asking for trouble. Like going into the maternity section accidentally at Target. What if it somehow rubs off on you and makes you more fertile? Or sends the message to your subconscious, hmmm, this looks like fun? (NOT the message I am trying to send right now!)

  3. What, no pics to show us this less than satisfactory haircut? I wanted to rubberneck a little.

    I can’t give you hairdresser advice. I wear a pony tail all the time. When it gets so long that it starts curling weird at the end—about every three months—I go get a couple of inches whacked off at Great Clips.

    I wore bandanas a lot when I was waiting for my layered hair to grow out long enough for a pony tail. Don’t know if that’s your style, though.

    Good luck finding your Mary Poppins.

  4. Good luck with your search. I would be absolutely no help whatsoever, even if I lived in Portland, as I still get my hair cut in my hometown. This would sound fairly normal if I excluded the tiny detail that I moved. Over two hours away. Almost six years ago. Not counting college. What can I say? Once I found someone who understood exactly what to do with my hair, I couldn’t bare the thought of breaking in a new hairdresser. When people find out about this quirk of mine, a common question is “What do your in-laws think?” And I’m always happy to answer this question, as it is proof I married into the right family for me—they all travel OUT OF STATE to get their haircuts!

  5. Speaking of traveling out of state… maybe you need to get the haircut you want, take a photo of it, and carry it with you to Portland. I really like my hairdresser– she gets my hair, and she’s inexpensive.

  6. Sorry, Lisa — I just couldn’t put up a pic of the bad haircut! Honestly, I don’t know if it’s that noticeable to anyone else. I just KNOW that it’s not quite right.
    Lisl, I used to do that! I loved my hairdresser in HS. Kenneth knew what he was doing. I would see him whenever I was home on holidays or breaks from college and that was five and a half hours away. Now that I think of it, he’s still about five and a half hours away but by plane instead of car so it’s a bit pricier of a proposition.
    That’s a good idea, Farida. It sounds like you have the dream hairdresser. *sigh* Someday, maybe I too will find one.

  7. Bridget–Hi, just found your blog via Lisa Nowak’s! If you’re still looking for a hairstylist, I can recommend mine: Leslie Martinez, at Hairline Hair Gallery, in downtown Vancouver. I live in N. Portland and it takes me about 10 minutes to get there. My hair’s not curly, but it’s wavy and hard to cut correctly (so I’ve been told by other stylists). I’ve been with Leslie for years, through long hair, short hair, and in between, and she’s always given me a great cut. Plus she’s nice, easy to talk to and down to earth. If you don’t mind a drive to the ‘Couv…

    http://www.hairlinehairgallery.com/index.html

    Finding a new hairstylist is always daunting. Good luck! And congrats on the move to Irvington. I love that neighborhood.

  8. Thanks for the suggestions, Christine and Michele! I’m going to have to check them out. I don’t know if I can wait until I’m actually due for a haircut! Hairlinegallery has a nice website which is always helpful — Michele, does Stacy have a website too?

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