Another Cheap Ass Haircut or All I want is Bang Bang Bangs

It's going to be a good year...17 days in and I've already accomplished my resolution...keep going to the gym and get a haircut. Done and done!

As I said in an earlier post I needed a haircut badly! My last one was in July from my friend Gardner, so you do the math...I was looking pretty raggedy. While I was in SF, I started asking everyone with a cute haircut where they got it, hoping to find a cheap ass gem from someone...and as it was CA, I'll be all cliche and say "Eureka I found it"! (Thats our motto for all you non California residents)

I was recommended to go to The Public Barber Salon by a girl with super cute hair, and even more was told to go see Sarah. The deal with this place is that a hair cut is $35 (yeah awesome prices!) and that everything like a shampoo and blow dry cost you more. So this is kinda cheating cause as a lady getting a cut we always get the blow dry, not to mention that more precise cutting of the hair is also done after the hair is dried...so really there is no way to get the $35 hair cut...instead my cut was $50 plus tip. So more pricey than I usually pay, Nothing-Free, but holy crappy what an amazing hair cut for the money!

I also decided I needed a whole new look for the year...was getting very bored with the same old graduated bobs I have been doing for years.

So here it is...

BANGS!

So this picture is horrible, as I am currently a hott mess laying in bed in my PJs and not about to take a picture right now (but what a night! nyc I remember why I love you so, sorry for the mind lapse), and I realized as I starting writing this post that I have no other pictures of my haircut yet, so shut up, stop judging and behold the choppy bangy shag I am sporting as of now.

Also I have come to realize my haircut is very similar to my brother's and no one has held back in saying so. Hi twinsies!

So hello 2010 and to having to flat iron my hair every morning! In love!

My not-so-(FREE) Haircut

A few years back I worked at a restaurant in the West Village, all sorts of characters came in. One night this very drunk and boisterously gay older gentlemen tells me my hair looks like shit and I acknowledge that he is correct and as he drinks more and as I have to walk him to a cab, he informs me he is one of the top stylist in the city and he wants to cut my hair, for free tomorrow at his HOUSE! Appeasing a drunkard I take him number and go back to work.

The next morning I'm curious and need a haircut, I'll try anything once. He tells me to head over to his house. Safety first, I call the salon he works at to make sure he's legit, give the address to my roommates so they know what to tell the police if I never return, and head out the door.

The second I walk into that place I am overwhelmed by the smell (dog pee) and the amount of framed photos of this man with Elizabeth Taylor, Dame Judi Dench, Bebe Neuworth...turns out this man was the Belle of the Gay ball for years, Mrs. Drag Queen 1965-75, Mrs. Stonewall himself, now the fallen and loneliest man in the city. All his best friends died, abandoned or cheated on him and left him with nothing but sour memories and lots of dog piss.

After a quick tour of the small over crowded apartment he takes me to the back room, sits me in a chair in front of a painting of Abe Lincoln getting a lap dance from Marilyn Monroe and before anything is said, he starts chopping. Can't do anything now but wait for the outcome. He suddenly starts folding foil into my hair, "You can tell everyone your hair got sunkissed in the Hamptons, just say, "Silly me, I forgot my hat when I went boating this past weekend." He pulls his hand up to his face in a bashful giggle, I nod, I think he might be crazy.

The foil sitting in my hair, the dye setting, he looks at me and smiles. He pulls me to a giant closet and flings the doors open, at first I think I'm looking at the remains of hundreds of dead muppets, but as my eyes adjust to the sparkling lights shimmering off the glitter, I realize it's 20 years of drag staring me in the face. "I haven't been able to wear these in years, what size are you?" Before I know it this man has me in glittering feathered drag queen hell, modeling his dresses so he can reminisce every moment in his past life. Ding, my hair is done, thank god!

After a quick blow dry my hair is AMAZING! Hands down one of the best haircuts and colors I have ever gotten, thank god, cause it really could have gone both ways. Before I can finish looking in the mirror he has whisked me away to the living room sat me on the couch and begun to sing me opera. 45 minuets later he is still singing me opera and I am still giving him standing ovations and bravos, this is painful, really really painful. A little while later he looks at his watch and realizes how late it has gotten, "Look at the Time!" No shit, I've been looking for the last hour I am thinking, but instead I give him a kiss on both cheeks and swiftly exit the house.

I'm smiling at all the craziness that just happened to me, and the beautiful haircut I just received and though I might not have paid money to that man, I surely paid for that haircut.

crazy man's haircut from a few years back

Haircuts for the Cheap Ass

I love haircuts, putting all my trust into some stranger's hands. I recently told my friend Gardner (who is in hair school) that I had never received a bad haircut, he responded with, "That means you have, you're just not that picky." Thats the key to being a cheap ass bitch, you can't be too picky.

The bottom line, we all need haircuts and they can be expensive...if you don't know how to get them for free that is.... the cheap ass answer, Hair School!

Some good options:

Bumble & Bumble on 13th street, the one you see advertised in Time Out. Unfortunately you have to wait weeks/months to get an appointment there, and the people who are cutting hair are in a one week Bumble crash course, not the best haircut and AWKWARD conversations.

Bumble & Bumble up on 57th. These stylist constantly post on Craigslist, look under free and look up haircut and someone from that school will be looking for a model. These are full time Bumble students working their way to a place on the floor of the salon. Must be noted that they usually want a specific haircut, so you can't be picky!

Arojo Studios, yeah that guy from What Not to Wear, well I came across this hair cut sitting in a park one day. A stylist asked to cut my hair and $20 later I had a very professional new look. This one isn't free but for $20 haircuts and $30 coloring the price is still cheap.

There are many other hair school options and depending on what city you are in the selection varies. But check out you local Craigslist and don't be nervous to try something new!