The new do

After nearly a decade of long hair, I finally took the plunge and went for the chop. Thankfully, I think the new crop does just what I hoped it would - it makes me look like a grown up, and a rather sophisticated one at that, if I do say so myself. The lovely Spencer at Trevor Sorbie Brighton (pronounced Sorbee, rather than Sorbet I'm told) is to thank for the new do.

Before

After

In-between the steady snips and blow-dry blasts, Spencer told me that several of the salon's clients have been in for restyles over the past month, due to the change in season and the fact that many just don't get chance to get to the hairdressers in the school holidays. Many customers are asking for soft perms and waves, he said, predicting that the most popular Christmas party style this year is going to be big hair - blow dried, backcombed and curled. Time to invest in some super-strength hairspray...

A beginner's beehive

My hair is fine - so fine that there were very nearly tears and tantrums when it came time to deciding what to do, or indeed what I could do, with it for my wedding. Curls just fell out, and the half-up do we eventually settled on required the formation of two small hair horns to create a bump that gave the illusion of volume - carefully combed over to cover.

So, my hopes of creating any form of beehive in the image of my glamorous 1960s style icons were slim. But after watching this video tutorial by Carrie at wishwishwish.net, I decided to give it a go.


Some 50 hair grips and half a can of hairspray later, I was very pleasantly surprised by my reflection. The 'do' only took ten minutes to style and withstood everything a windy and rainy Sunday in Brighton could throw at it. Of course my hair was taller, but it seemed to make me walk taller too - I definitely felt my Sunday best.