Why Does My Hair Look Like David Cassidy's?

To rephrase the title, "Why is everyone cutting my hair to look like David Cassidy?"

It's stressful finding a new hair person; One that understands your hair texture and style. I was forced to try new Cosmetologists when I relocated. Time after time, I emphasized the need to avoid thinning shears on my thick, coarse, and curly hair. Every time, they used a different method, and I ended up with a wannabe men's shag. Weird, right? The 'thinner' sections would just frizz. Not pretty!

The term I kept hearing in the salon is 'disconnection.' That doesn't always look great with long layers. I just wanted to be able to style beachy waves, and have long blended bangs! Why was this so hard? This is what happened:

First, they twisted the back of my hair. I thought they were checking for split ends. By the time the scissors made their way to the sides of my hair, I realized she was making horizontal cuts to the twisted sections. No thinning shears, but it gave an uneven 'disconnection' which looked awful.

Another time, I paid $200 for a haircut. It looked great when I was sitting in the chair waiting for a blow dry. Then, he said, "Your haircut is just beginning," and asked me to flip my head over.  I had asked what came next, and thought he was doing a little bit of an undercut. He ran his hands through my hair, and quickly cut random chunks of hair! Again, I ended up with a mushroom shape near the shoulders with scraggly ends. WTH?

I was doing okay with my third stylist, who I actually liked personality-wise. Then, the fourth time I went in, the same thing happened. No thinning shears, but she made random cuts to obtain disconnection. I also ended up with blunted, non-blended bangs. This is when it occurred to me that I looked like a long haired David Cassidy. You have no idea how much style time and product it took to make that hairdo look decent.

I was fortunate to find a referral to a stylist that I love. I drive an hour and a half each way to see her, and it's worth it! (I later found out she trained in Paris and Milan before coming to the US. She is fabulous.)

Moral of the story: A good hairstylist is worth every penny. Loyalty breeds amazing style!