I did something…

I GOT BANGS!!!

This is the first time I’ve ever had full-on ‘bang’ bangs. An awesome and unconventional flex I have been blessed with since I entered Earth is that my father is a hairdresser. And recently, my mother started coloring hair and is working on getting her cosmetology license, making it even more convenient for me to get fresh color. Whenever I want a haircut or some fresh styling, we either head to the kitchen counter or my parents’ bathroom with the necessary supplies and they work their magic. They’re both creative geniuses, so much so that my dad came up with the catchy and truthful phrase, ‘bathroom bangs’ that I’ve used to title this post and caption the accompanying Instagram post. This has made taking action on how I believe making noticeable changes to your hair to be a symbol of new beginnings much easier (and financially possible 🙂 ). The most extreme instance of living out this truth was when I dyed my hair beach blonde and chopped it a little below my collar bones before I started my freshman year of college. Change can be fun!

Growing up I used to think that bangs were a hairstyle that only little girls or female teachers (I watched too much New Girl during middle school – thank you Jess for your tribute) could pull off. However, once I saw the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit poster of Paulina Porizkova that my brother hung up in his room, my opinion changed. I realized that they can be powerfully feminine and add somewhat of an edge to your overall appearance without being super dominating. In other words, I learned that they have the potential to give off ‘Je ne sais quoi,’ ‘effortless chic,’ and a bit of ‘allure’ simultaneously.

The next time I saw a photo of bangs that I liked was Margot Robbie’s cover story with British Vogue in 2021. They just framed her face perfectly!

I thought it would be a fun switch-up to my appearance for the summer and start to my senior year of college. And, as mentioned above, I have to have a new hair-do to facilitate new chapters of my life.

I had to consult the queen of bangs Bridget Bardot to guide the direction of my cut. We used the above photo for inspiration, so if you too are planning on getting bangs anytime soon, just know that Pinterest is full of boards and posts dedicated solely to her hair. I wanted for mine to be a bit wispier, and boy did Jim deliver. He made incremental tweaks to the appearance of the bang and even went so far as to use a razor blade to get the final look. A key part of the haircut was adding layers around the face, which my dad likes to call ‘Seamless Layers.’ This did wonders by making the bangs look more ‘lived-in’ and like they truly belonged on my head. Whenever I see bang ‘flops,’ I’ve realized that it’s because they don’t have the added softness that layers add to the full look, so make sure to ask for those as well! As for hair color, I desperately needed a touch-up to make the bangs blend even more. Petra first started by applying balayage to my head as a full highlight with 20 volume. After processing for 50-or-so minutes, washed the bleach off (no shampoo was used during this step), and then added a root tap and gloss. We wanted to keep it a more cool-toned ‘bronde’ and stray away from any brassiness, so she used a combination of Redkin’s Shades EQ in 9GI, 9V, and 9P.

Here is the final look. This has become one of my favorite haircuts and color jobs of all time, and all the while has surprisingly made me already feel more confident in my own skin. Thank you, Mommy & Daddy!!

💘 Hanna