WHAT TO DO AND NOT DO TO YOUR HAIR RIGHT NOW
What to do (and not do) with your hair right now
The hair memes are everywhere: pictures of people with impossibly short bangs, two-toned mullets and funky bowl cuts, with cheeky captions like “Spring 2020 hair trends, designs created by Corona Virus.”
It’s been three weeks since Colorado officially shut down hair salons, along with nail salons, spas, massage parlors and tattoo shops. But many of us were already self-isolating well before that (or at least trying to limit our contact with the outside world).
Hair appointments tend to follow a predictable cycle, usually occurring every four to eight weeks, depending on your style and preferences. Maybe you were already nearing the end of your last cut or color’s meaningful life when the novel coronavirus turned the world upside down.
For a lot of people, this means roots are making a big-time appearance, ends are splitting and “shaggy” is the most appropriate adjective for describing your style. What to do? Should you grab a pair of kitchen shears and just start hacking? Watch hours and hours of YouTube tutorials? Buy a box of hair dye during your next grocery run? Start wearing hats?
For starters, consider doing absolutely nothing to your hair.
Most of us shouldn’t be leaving the house much anyway, nor should we be socializing. So just sit tight and give yourself a break. It’ll be fine.
“Who’s trying to impress anyone right now?” said Kristy Koopman, who owns Kindly Hair Haven in Denver. “We’re all on such a level playing field. If anyone out there is looking good right now, they’re an anomaly. I’m really encouraging people to practice radical acceptance of themselves.”
And honestly, our hair is just one giant metaphor for what’s happening right now. We’re all going to be different after this because, well, life is just different. Your life — and your hair — will be divided into pre-coronavirus and post-coronavirus chapters, plain and simple.
Now is the time for a little self-exploration, in hair and otherwise.
“You’re going to come back different,” said Koopman. “We’re going to be longer. Some of us might be shorter because we couldn’t wait. It might be weird, but let’s play. Let’s use this time to be curious and cultivate a new style we wouldn’t have tried before. We have to think more out of the box and not consider picking up the scissors and the clippers and just allowing ourselves to grow into different shapes.”
Another reason for doing nothing to your hair? You won’t cause future headaches for your stylist (and your wallet), when business returns to normal.
Especially when it comes to coloring your hair, you’re probably doing more harm than good, even if you promise yourself it’s just this once.
“People are doing a rush on box colors,” said Suzanne Magnuson, co-owner of Big Hairy Monster in Denver. “Remember that what you spend $5 on at the grocery store right now, you’re going to spend $200 at the salon to fix later.”
If you get your hair colored professionally, then you already know that many DIY home coloring kits can wreak havoc on your hair.
There are some stylist-approved at-home coloring kits on the market, but you won’t find them in your local drugstore and they aren’t cheap (you get what you pay for, after all).
Dani Bee, owner of Bee Sweet hair space, recommends the Denver-based brand Overtone, which makes conditioners that color your hair. Kool-Aid is also a better option than a cheap box of hair dye, she said.
“Those boxes of color, they have a higher amount of chemicals, they are permanent, they change the chemical makeup of the hair and they are unpredictable for us to work with in the future,” said Bee. “They don’t leave the hair until you cut it out of the hair. When we go back in to do your color and there’s a surprise in there, it messes with our system. It messes with your hair.”
Now is also the perfect time to make a hair transition, since there’s no one around to see you during the awkward stages, at least for now. Thinking of going gray? Want to grow out your bangs? Go ahead.
“Just embrace it,” said Magnuson.