Tagged: hair styles

I Need a New Hairstyle- Theory Hair Salon’s Step by Step Guide

“I need a new hairstyle.” We’ve all said it, we’ve all heard it. It’s a phrase that’s both exciting and stressful. It could mean a long, difficult search, or seeing something you love the very next day. It could mean the best hair cut of your life, or photos you’ll be trying to hide and/or destroy for the rest of it. Finding a new hair cut to go with is a tricky beast, but it doesn’t have to be stressful! In fact, it can be a lot of fun! When we at the salon are looking for a new style, we have a process we go through that we think works wonders for cutting down on the stress and time it takes to pick out a fresh, trendy hairstyle, and makes it a lot of fun to look for one.

Step 1: Length

Hillary Swank makes this very short hairstyle look killer.

This may sound like a no-brainer, but it’s the best place to start when picking a new hairstyle, because it seriously narrows down your search. Are you looking for a drastic change in length, say going short, or even very short? Would you like to have a bit more length, maybe looking for extensions or growing your hair out a bit? Maybe shoulder or just below the chin is a style you’ve always wanted to try out? Picking the length first and sticking to just the styles that feature that length is an incredibly efficient way to cut down on time and stress.

Step 2: What’s the Occasion?

Next, think about where you’re going to be going when you get this new hair. If you’re the kind of person who has a job that doesn’t mind what you do with your hair, it’s safe to try out something a bit more avant garde or modern, and in some cases it might even be greatly beneficial. On the other hand, if you have a job or lifestyle that requires you to tone it down a bit, or retain a highly professional demeanor, you might want to choose a classic look, like the bob. There are even styles that are a little

While we love this style, it may not be appropriate for every lifestyle or job situation.

bit of both, such as the pixie, or styles that can be worn in both edgy and formal ways. Picking this after you choose length will cut down your search even further, and you might even be able to find a great style after just choosing these two options.

Step 3: Color- Natural or Dyed

An important issue that deals less with style and more with presentation and process is whether you want to stick with your natural color or go with something new. On top of that, if you do want color, you should decide whether you want naturally occurring colors, or something a bit out of the ordinary, such as ombre hair color or pastel hair color. While you can always change this later, when getting any extensive processes or changes done to your hair, it’s a good idea to tell your stylist your whole plan ahead of time, so they can make sure to do everything in the order that will be best for your hair.

Step 4: Inspiration

This girl has done the ombre color process on her gorgeous wavy hair, and it works so well!

This, we think, is perhaps the most important step in the whole process, because it’s where you actually start looking for hairstyles to fit the rest of the process. We’ve talked a bit about this before, but it never hurts to refresh! Some absolutely killer hair resources are hair and fashion magazines, celebrities (film and TV and otherwise), using a hairstyle finder like the one on the Theory Hair Salon website and our favorite place for inspiration, this blog!

Step 5: Narrow It Down

Now that you’ve picked out a few styles you like from your sources of inspiration, don’t stress about choosing just the right one yet. Print or cut out a few photos of styles you like, and carry them around in your purse or wallet for a few days. Look at them every once in awhile, and then forget about them. Show them to friends and family. Before you know it, the right choice will just

Bringing in a fashion magazine or printed photos is a great way to show your stylist exactly what you want.

pop right out at you.

Step 6: Bring It In!

And here’s the fun part! Once you’ve picked out your favorite style of the moment, bring that baby in to Theory Hair Salon, and let’s get to work. Sooner than you ever thought possible, your hair is in a new, fun style that was a breeze to pick out. Now that’s not so scary, is it?

 

Hairstyle Magazines for Women, A Great Place for Inspiration!

As we’ve mentioned before, when you’re on the hunt for a new style, one of the best

Hairstyle magazines like this one that are all about hair are a great place to start.

resources for inspiration and looks is the world of magazines. But which magazines, exactly, do you use? Today we’re going to take a tour of the world of women’s hairstyle magazines, from the hair specific, to the well-known fashion mags to those you might not have seen before. With this short list, you’ll have a plethora of places to go next time you feel like it’s time for a new style.

Hair Magazines

The first places to stop, of course, are those magazines that are specifically all about hair. There are dozens of publications in this category, which itself has a few subcategories. One category that you won’t really want to pay attention to is that of salon and industry magazines, which are designed for those that own hair-related businesses. What you do want to look for are magazines written for general people or for stylists. Some magazines in these two categories are Sophisticate’s Hairstyle Guide (there are two editions, one general and one specifically for African American hairstyles), the three editions of magazines by Love Your Hair (Your Hair, Hair Ideas and Blonde Hair), Hype Hair, and simply Hair Magazine. Our favorite in this category is Hot by Hairshow, a somewhat more contemporary and trendy zine. All of these publications are all about hair from cover to cover and feature hairstyles as well as tips on hair.

News Rack Style Magazines

Sometimes it’s more fun to find a new style on a beautiful fashion model or celebritythan

"Vogue" is one of the more famous magazines on our list, and it's great for hairstyles!

it is to just look at page after page about hair. For this method of finding a hairstyle magazine, just go to the section of your local bookstore, supermarket or news stand and pick out a few famous titles to flip through. You’ve got your celebrity rags (People, Life & Style), your general women’s lifestyle mags (W, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Seventeen), the beauty focused publications (Allure) and best of all in our minds, the fashion and culture magazines, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Nylon, InStyle and Elle. Each of these is great to use as hairstyle magazines, as even though they don’t specifically focus on styles of hair, they feature many trendy looks on fashionable people. Either pick one out to copy, or use them as jumping off points for your own looks!

Foreign Fashion and Hair Magazines

This French magazine is both high fashion AND all about hair. Two birds!

Now this is where things get fun! If you’re looking for a style that’s outside of the same stuff everyone in the US knows about, these days you have the option to order a foreign fashion, style or hair magazine. These are a little more difficult to come by, and will probably require ordering online, but each one is a veritable treasure trove of high-fashion, cutting edge looks that will wow your fellow Americans. Some of these publications even feature English-language versions! Here’s a quick list of some of our very favorite magazines to find hair styles from all over the world: Shinbiyo (Japan), Hairmode (Japan), Coiffure de Paris (French, this one is extra-high fashion), Numero (French), Creative Head (UK), Coiffure Beauty (Bulgaria), Lucky (Canada) and Flare (Canada). Vogue also has some really cool editions in other countries, such as France, Italy and Japan, that we are crazy about. When it comes to places to scope out new styles, as well as keep up on fashion and hair all over the world, these foreign fashion magazines are truly the crème de la crème.

Hair style magazines are a time-honored and incredibly useful way to expand your options

Foreign fashion magazines go way outside the box with their incredibly cool hair styles.

for your own hair. On top of their ability to be a great resource for both you and your favorite hair stylists, some of these magazines are just great fun to flip through, especially with a few friends. Next time you’re thinking about coming up to Theory Hair Salon, but you don’t know what to have done, pick up a few of these magazines on the way! With inspiration like what these hair cut magazines can give you, you’re sure to have a great, edgy new cut in no time.

Virtual Hairstyles, the Way of the Future with Theory Hair Salon

For this post, we’re going to explore a concept that might seem a little strange, but is becoming a more and more popular concept across the world. We’re talking virtual hairstyles! What’s a virtual hairstyle, you might ask? In these days of such widespread Internet use, the style of hair on virtual characters, everything from video game denizens to pop stars that only exist as bits of data, the world of digital hair has expanded and become an entire subculture that we here at the salon just love!

Before you think this is just too out there or removed from real life to matter to real hair,

This forward-thinking young girl has brough Hatsune Miku's virtual hair to life.

think about this: a virtual world is a great place for hairstylists to experiment with dynamic and exciting new styles, which can then be replicated in the real world. In fact, this is already happening! Take the incredible and unique story of Hatsune Miku, a hugely popular Japanese pop star that actually isn’t even a real person. In reality, Miku is a computer program with a female persona that puts out recordings and even sells out 10,000 seat concerts, performing by projection. And one of the main, beloved features of this strange new star? Her hair! Miku wears extremely long, straight pig tails, typically dyed blue, and this style has caught on huge with the fans of her music, who replicate the look in real life.

This kind of thing is not new for fans of anime and video games, especially those from Japan. There’s a whole world of passionate fans that dress up as their favorite characters, which is called cosplaying and often involves bringing a virtual hairstyle to life that would almost seem impossible. These fans find a way however, often pushing the boundaries of what can be done with hair more than any other place, except perhaps high fashion. These gravity-

Nicki Minaj's hair is influenced by Harajuku culture, which in turn is majorly influenced by cosplay.

defying dos aren’t exclusive to conventions or cosplaying either, as they end up filtering into real-life through places like the Harajuku area in Tokyo, a place where fashion designers and international celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Kreayshawn look to for inspiration. These wild styles may take a little work and hair coloring, but they are becoming possible with new advances in styling technology.

Another interesting example of virtual hair cuts is the world of Second Life, an online simulation game where people create a character which they can customize to an extreme degree. Because Second Life gives players the freedom to do pretty much anything they want, creative online hair-lovers have built an entire world of online salons and hairstyling. These pioneers of digital hair have even created an economy out of their creations, selling them in packs to users who want something special for their character. Like their cosplay counterparts, these virtual hair styles are often incredibly inventive and fresh, leading to some ideas that might not have happened in the typical manner. Also like cosplaying, people have begun

An exciting virtual hairstyle from the world of Second Life.

to bring these virtual cuts into existence on actual human heads, showing that while art might reflect life, the opposite is true as well.

The more we use and improve upon technology, the more we’ll see things like virtual hair impacting our real-world lives. Take a look around the Internet at a few examples of some of these ultra-modern, new styles created not on a person, but on a computer, and you might just find something you like. If you do, bring it in to Theory Hair Salon, and be one the first to jump on this growing, exciting trend! At Theory, we love hairstyles that push boundaries, and there’s definitely no more interesting or fresh look than trying out a virtual hairstyle with your own real life locks. How’s that for a little something different?