Blow Dry Bars: Take 'Em or Leave 'Em?

Leave 'em. Just kidding. Sort of. Well, I hate when the title of an article is a question and it takes four paragraphs to get to the answer. So there it is, the short answer. You don't have to read any more! ;) Unless you want the long answer...

You may have noticed this trend in your hometown. In mine, a plethora of "dry bars" have popped up in the last year or so. In case you're not familiar with the phenomenon: dry bars are upscale salons devoted entirely to blow drying hair. Well, they also wash it. And they do flat iron, curl, and do special occasion updos as well. But no cutting and no color services. Drybar is an example of this trend, although that particular chain has not made it to my area.

I was curious about these dry bars, but since the going rate around here is not cheaper than my regular salon, I couldn't really justify spending the money. After all, I have really and truly embraced my natural hair texture. (However, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good blow out once it a while!) Then one of the local dry bars selected my place of employment as the "business of the month" and offered all of us free blow outs! Well, how could I resist? Even though I had no special occasion on the dates the freebies were offered (weekdays of course), I figured it would be fun.

The salon (a local company, not the chain linked above) was quite nice. The stylist washed, blow dried, and flat ironed my hair - which took well over an HOUR. That was just way too long to have my hair pulled and messed with. Maybe some people enjoy spending that long in a salon, but I do not. I had a mild headache for the rest of the day.

Straight from the dry bar

Did it look good? Not bad - a little big and poufy for my taste, with lots of hairs sticking up on the top of my head, but the friends I met for lunch right afterwards really liked it as is and wouldn't "let" me pat it down like I wanted. However, as soon as I got home, I calmed it down a bit with a brush and some gel, and it looked much smoother and better.

After I calmed it down with a brush and some gel

So would I go back? I doubt it. My impression is that the idea behind these dry bars is that the blowouts are supposed to be cheaper and better than a regular salon. That may be the case for many, but it was not my experience at all. My regular stylist charges about the same rate and does a better (and MUCH faster) job. The only reason I might try the dry bar thing again is if I were unable to get an appointment when I needed one at my regular salon. If you are someone who does normally get their hair blown out every week, it probably is worthwhile, because there are usually memberships you can buy to get a cheaper rate. I'd still recommend that anyone who is interested, try it out. I'm just glad I was able to do so for practically free (though I did tip the stylist and buy some products).

Do you use dry bars? If not, are you planning to try one?

Embracing My Natural Hair Texture

It's a well-known generalization that curly girls wish for straight hair and straight haired girls wish for curls. Now that I am embracing my natural hair color, it makes sense to lay off the heat tools and embrace my actual hair texture, which is really neither curly nor straight.

This is the hair texture I wished I had from the time I was a teenager:

Which is really, really strange, because I was a teenager smack-dab in the 1980s, when huge hair was "in." While women used orange juice cans and irons to straighten their hair in the 1970s, I was too young for any of that. No one was trying to accomplish a straight-haired look in the mid 1980s. But even while I was setting my hair in hot rollers and using gallons of hairspray (and waking up an extra hour early to get to school on time) to create the big 80s hair, I always thought that some day I'd accomplish this sleek bob. So, have I indeed accomplished this sleek bob? Despite this photo, no, not really. My expert stylist can (and did) achieve this look on me, but I literally can not do it myself, even with a rather expensive flat iron.

So, can I do curly?

Sure. If I "plop" it (the short definition of plopping: scrunching wet hair with product upside down and carefully placing it into a microfiber turban, then air-drying) and don't touch or comb or brush it. It really didn't look as good in real life as in this photo, since the other side didn't curl as nicely. Because my hair isn't TRULY curly, it's just a bit wavy. But not being able to comb or brush it drives me nuts. Not to mention, in the winter-time, air-drying isn't always ideal. So this isn't a great everyday 'do for me.

So I've decided to embrace is my natural waviness, such as it is:

It looks different every day, and as you can see from the photos, the left and right sides actually look different on the same day. But I can partially blow dry it (just for about two minutes to get some moisture out of the underneath layers that touch my neck) on cold days, or simply let it air dry. Styling is easy: comb in a little leave-in conditioner, a wee bit of gel, and gently scrunch for a few seconds. And, once it's dry, I can brush it. As often as I like. Ease in styling isn't about laziness; it's about going along with what my hair actually wants instead of fighting it. I feel like I'm inducing far less damage to it by obeying its commands. ;) As I get older, I feel the need to baby my hair, as it's thinner and more delicate than it used to be. So this is my natural texture. I still let my stylist do the sleek look for special occasions, and on some hot, humid days, I'll probably plop for that big curly look. But on an everyday basis, the irregular, slightly wavy look just feels like ME.