Dan's Papers - July 27, 2007 - Before and After at Style Bar

Upon entering Style Bar, I was greeted by two lovely young receptionists, eager to direct me to my stylist, offering a selection of beverages on the way. Not wanting to overstep my boundaries, I declined, but later redeemed the offer with a nice glass of ice water with lemon.

My favorite part of a haircut is inevitably the luxe-washing-scalp-massage part - I wish it would last for hours. Fragrant bouts of coconut and lime wafted from the L'Oreal shampoo and a thick, creamy Bumble and Bumble conditioner saturated my thirsty blonde strands for a good minute. After a brief neck and shoulder massage, I was taken from fantasyland into, gasp, another fantasyland!

I took a seat in a mock-Victorian setting - floral yellow wallpapered walls surrounded me as Angie Quiros Baldi, my beautiful and gracious stylist, descended the stairs. At this time I hadn't a clue what I was in for, but after Angie tilted my head right, left, up and down, and muttered layers, a few "face-framing" ones, and pointed to about 2 inches off the bottom, I thought, hey, this can't turn out too bad, can it?

After a few minutes of vigorous sheering, my head felt much lighter. Holding a section of my overgrown bangs between her fingers, Angie said, "Dry, too dry." Uh yeah, I'm thinking, like the rest of my hair... "Cut it off," I said, feeling liberated as the unhealthy strands were snipped. The more hair that went, the better I felt. The final cutting was perfected with this tool that thins out chunks of hair. I was terrified when she hacked into a huge section with this mystery scissor. It looked like it would take three inches off easily, leaving only three inches to my head, but alas, baby-fine strands fell to the floor, leaving my head feeling lighter and oddly, much fuller.

Angie assessed my new cut for a long while, evening the areas around my face exactly and tossing my layers to ensure they would fall naturally when either wet or dry. I'm a big-time beachgoer, so having good "wet" hair is almost as important as good dry hair. My new surfer-meets-hipster shaggy layers looked super cool and the whole enterprise was beginning to feel validating.

I couldn't wait for a blowout, since it's about a once-a-year thing for me - I'm a no-blow-dryer-minimal-prep-time kind of gal. I asked Angie to give my hair movement and a natural feel. Angie's face lit up, "Oh, so you want sexy hair." Caught, I thought, that's exactly what I meant. "How old are you," Angie continued, wiping some smoothing serum between her palms. "Twenty-two," I said, anticipating the comment to come. "You look seventeen! You look so young!" cringing, I said I've gotten that before. Women of a different generation may cringe at my inability to look old, but listen ladies, it's no fun being eternally "cute." Sometimes it's wonderful to feel and look like a woman.

Well that's precisely what I got, and more. My new chic-shag looked utterly sophisticated, and mind-blowingly touchable! I couldn't stop running my hands through my bouncy-flouncy curls, and the compliments I got were from equal parts women and men. That's when you know you've really got it, when guys want to feel your hair and girls want to have it.

Angie and I were like giddy schoolgirls, laughing and admiring the job she'd done, when an air of seriousness swept over her. "You look good, but your eyebrows could use some work," she said. Feeling completely at her mercy, I asked if she'd fix them. "Of course!" she said, clipping one side of my head back, and going straight to the right eyebrow. "You see, this one is a little thicker than the other and I want to improve the arch a little." Improve the arch a little? Bambi eyes, here I come, I thought. I must say my eyebrows have never looked so even. Angie's artistic talent comes in her ability to perfect the brow. It's no accident she is requested by nearly all Style Bar clientele for this service.

I felt like I hit the jackpot walking out of that place, a bonafide sophisticate with seventeen-year-old skin. Now what can beat that?