My new haircut may not be as bad as Taraji P. Henson's in I Can Do Bad All By Myself but it sure is cute! Your thoughts? I can't wait to see how this look will evolve when my hair grows out. I told one of my best friends that I cut my hair because I got tired of the length. I find it difficult to style my hair when it's medium-length. However, now, I'm a "pro," which simply means I don't have to beg my sister to hook me up. In fact, I styled my hair like that in the picture. It looks so different from when I left the salon.
She said, "Wow. I couldn't do it." I responded that it was just hair. In two weeks or so, I'll have new growth. At that point, i'll just make an appointment for a wash and set before I leave to go to Missouri for Thanksgiving. I've been counting down the days.
I took in a feature I ripped out of Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Care Guide. Dante Blandshaw, Taraji's personal hair pro, detailed the steps that he took to create the chic bob complete with sideswept bangs that she wore at the Oscars.
The department head for Bad, Charles Gregory Ross, also provided tips on how to replicate Taraji's look: "Tell your stylist you want a layered bob, very textured with lots of volume in the crown area and more tapered in the back."
I flirted briefly with the thought of using extensions. I asked my hairstylist if I should get a full, human-hair weave to achieve the fullness. She said that I should wait to see how it will turn out when she cut it. I've also been on Hair Sisters, Clair Hair and Especially Yours to see if I could find a wig or weave similar to Ms. Henson's bob. So far, I've found some that were similar but they were missing one or more components: layers, texture, volume in the crown, or a tapered back. Luckily, I am not discouraged in my quest to find a style that was inspired by flyy girl April! 
Getting back to my cute coif, I originally told my hairstylist that I hated my hair and I wanted to start over. I knew I still had split ends even though four weeks prior, a different hairstylist had chopped off most of my damaged length. More than anything, I wanted thick, sideswept bangs so I could hide my widow's peak and forehead. In the back of my mind, I felt a bit like Melanie from The Game or Bernadine from Waiting to Exhale. By cutting her hair, it allowed her a fresh start, even for a little while. I've denied myself a fresh start for too long so now was the perfect time to release the past.
I'm not sure how much length she chopped off but while she was cutting it, I silently cheered myself on for having the courage to go shorter. You see, for a while, I defined myself by how smart I was, how I was able to write...how I had "good hair." I've heard it all of my life, especially from past hairdressers and friends. They'll say, "Oh, you have good (or pretty) hair like your mom" or "Wow, is that all of your hair? Girl, if I had your hair, I'd do all sort of cute things with it!"
This is the third time in my life that I've cut my hair. The first time, I didn't want a particular style. I just left that up to the hairstylist. The second time, I spotted a hairstyle in a hair book. Instead of my hairstylist telling me that she wasn't good at cutting hair, she attempted the style. The finish result didn't look anything like the picture. I hated it but I lied and told her that I loved it. When I started this blog, I was still waiting for my hair to grow out of that horrid cut.
When she was done snipping, my hair was a very crude (and thin) sketch of Taraji's bob. Then when she styled it, it had some volume, the back was tapered and the sides were a bit longer. I had my swoop bang! I have yet to flip my bangs out like April models in the pic at the right but I will. In essence, this was the cut that I wanted back in early 2008 but never got. To see Taraji P. Henson with my dream hairstyle in the movie really inspired me to abandon my fear of going too short. Like I said, it's just hair and it will grow back!
