She bangs!

For the first time, in a very long time, …. my hair colour finally matches the colour of my eyes!

:S

I noticed this today on my way to work. As I was glancing into my car’s rear mirror to check out that idiot car behind me, I found myself disbelieving the reflection staring back at me - a pair of molten dark brown eyes beneath newly chopped jet-black bangs.

It’s so strange! It was like some freakish ghoulish doll looking back at me. Some people might say Asian version of Tyra Banks (minus the precociousness and supermodel body) or an 8 year old girl Japanese anime character. Either way, this is the new Frou look for 2009.

And how it all came about – has a story.

It all started last week when I was hanging out in KL and was bored outta my mind. Sick and tired of lazing around, we decided to catch a movie. Nothing good was on and the best of the lot is “Yes Man” starring Jim Carey. (For the record, I do not recommend this movie.)

Now it so happen that Jim Carrey’s onscreen girlfriend (Zooey Deschanel) is this petite brunette girl with loose long hair and short thick bangs. She looks very cute and her character is slightly quirky.

I started having ideas that chicks with bangs are always cute and slightly quirky. And that is how the thought about getting short bangs first came about to me. And as usual, most of my harebrain ideas will stick around for a long time unless someone convince me that it is a BAD idea - which in this case, nobody expressly did.

Frou: (Pointing at movie screen) Do you think I will look good with bangs like hers?
Phillip: Zzzz….

After that movie, I started seeing “bangs” everywhere. People on the streets, models in the magazine, shitzhu dogs in the park etc. I became fixated with the idea of chopping off my own long fringe even though I have been trying to keep it for the longest time because of my last harebrain idea of looking like Avril Lavigne.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was during a bouldering session the next day with my KL climb buddy, J, at the climbing gym.

Now J is one of my few platonic male friends who will freely dispense blunt straight guy advice to me on all things. What this mean is, because we do not have sexual angst lingering between us, we do not find it necessary to mince words around each other.

Frou: Do you think I will look good with bangs?
J: Have you been getting any action?
Frou: Not particularly.
J: Then get the bangs.
Frou: Why ar?
J: Because obviously your current look is not getting you anywhere.

You have to admit that was pretty sound advice. It’s trite; if something is not working, you need to change it. And just as much as he is a straight talker, he is also an enforcer. So after our climb, he followed me to a hair salon to make sure that I do not chicken out of cutting my fringe.

That day was New Year’s Eve and all the hair salons were busy like Santa’s workshop on Christmas Eve. Many parties to go to and many auntie beehive hairstyles needs to be sculpted. I manage to get a short 10 minutes session with a very frazzled lady hairdresser.

Frou: Do you think I will look good with bangs?
Frazzled Lady Hairdresser: Look miss, I am very busy today. You need to tell me now whether you want me to cut it or not.
J: Just chop it off!!!

So she did. Well, it wasn’t a drastic do because like I said, she only has 10 minutes with me so she lackadaisically removed a chunk of hair from the top of my forehead. And that’s it.

Due to the lack of effort, the effect wasn’t what I was looking for; plus the fact that I had long blondish hair, instead of looking like, say, Jessica Alba in Into The Blue, I was looking sort of like a beach babe who woke up from her siesta on the beach a couple hours too late only to find that the waves had washed away half her belongings along with part of her hair.

It’s a new look nonetheless, but it wasn’t fantastic.

Anyway, skip forward a couple of days to last Sunday, I decided to go to another hairdresser in Singapore to see what can be done to improve the look. I went into this new salon I never tried before but have passed by a few times. The place has a rather vogue feel to it, with a huge flat screen TV showing catwalks in Milan and they only let you read fashion (not gossip) magazines. They are that serious.

My hairdresser, unfortunately, has the same name as the man who plays the main male character in Matrix. (Stop laughing, Frou, stop it!) Let’s just call him Neo. Rather quiet at first, Neo later sat down with me, while my hair is in cling wrap, to “get to know me better” since I am his new customer.

And boy, did he open up. He told me he is Malaysian and with a lot of pride and venom, he recounted how he won 2nd prize in an international hairstyling competition in Malaysia last year but unfortunately such accolade is not recognized in Singapore so his pay continues to be shitty. He hopes to earn enough money in Singapore one day to open his own salon in Malaysia. When that day comes, all his ex-colleagues will have to eat his dust - mwahahaha. (I think that’s what he said verbatim. There may be some lost in translation as the conversation was entirely in Mandarin.)

So after getting to know me better, Neo is more relaxed and open and he finally tells me that he was upset when I walk into the salon earlier because my previous hairstyle was (I quote) “It’s sooooo ah lian, aiyoh, how could you?!” He said that his specialty is creating “chic, classic and elegant” hairstyles and that’s how he will transform me.

*faints*

Anyway, to cut long story short, he cut my long hair short (lame pun intended) and after shampooing, I realized that my hair is now jet black. And to answer your anticipated question: No, I didn’t choose or ask what colour they were going to use on me because I usually just leave such difficult decisions to the hair people because I assume they know best.

And to their best knowledge, it was necessary to transform me from blonde ah lian to prototype Asian girl. Neo said that my previous cut is “not here, not there” so he decided to give me a very sharp chiseled china doll haircut complete with seriously heavy bangs. One can only imagine that he must be a huge fan of Bai Ling. (I wanted to put up a picture of her but I couldn't find one where she wore clothes.)

And so, that is the story that explains the reflection in my car rear mirror today.

*groans*

Now I look so ready to “gong xi fa cai” this Chinese New Year. Or give me a red cheongsam and pushcart and I’ll be all ready to serve dumplings down at Golden Dragon Restaurant.

Frou: Xian Sheng, yao bu yao chi xiao long bao?
Phillip: Bu yao. Wo yao chi siang jiao. With two xiang long bao at the bottom.
Frou: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKS!!!