Style in Dance Fashion
Autumn can be so enervating - hints of crisp, cool nights; crunchy apples coming into your local green markets, the weight of heavier fabrics on your body, Nutcracker rehearsals, the promise of the huge holiday marathon season ahead beginning with Thanksgiving, and snuggling into the latest fall fashions - depending on where you are. If you live south of Northern New Jersey, you are probably facing very different conditions. Try another month at best of simmering summer. Use this time to get in shape for fall. Yes, it's time to put away summer things and shop for fall, but nothing will look good on you unless your skin and hair have been repaired from summer's blast and overexposure.
Marc and Stan, Master Stylists with M2 Hair Systems in Virginia Beach, a major resort area, are all too aware of the damages that living in the sun, even for a few months, can do to your crowning glory. They remind their faithful readers:
"Get to the hair doctor fast! Get conditioned and styled. Do not perm and color in the same visit and don't even think about asking your stylist to do that." If your stylist insists, find another one. That person does not care about your hair.
Though the fashion gods decreed big hair to go with big shoulder pads and the excesses of the '80's, no one was injured in any stamped for hair spray. When I saw Marc and Stan recently for a bang trim, they were styling hair with their usual flair and elegance, creating it for the person instead of the latest fashion. If the hair is long and a ponytail or a bun is a must for class, Marc and Stan beg you to please use something other than a regular rubber band. It breaks the hair. And don't pull the hair so tight you give yourself a facelift. That's not a good thing!
"Bunheads" often risk alopecia (a thinning and balding condition) from overzealousness in pulling the hair back from the face. Stan showed me how to tip my head forward so my chin is on my chest when I'm ready to pull it back in a bun or my usual French twist. When the styling and twisting is finished, I can raise my head and still close my eyes.
Hairpieces are still fun and even wacky. Target and similar department stores, or Little Ricky's in New York, have a plethora of styles and colors to match, fill in or contrast wildly with your own hair. Why risk (mis)coloring your hair, losing a role onstage, or suffering an allergic reaction when you can simply add a piece to your own "do." On my recent trips to the city this summer, grunge was nonexistent. Only a few blue and greenheads were spotted in the Village, and none with wild spikes. Even the Goths have softened their dead black hair, lips and nail to include more in a softer color spectrum.
For men, unshaved scraggly beards were gone as were those dreadful, wispy goatees. Long and short hair was seen on guys, the long hair pulled back from the face, with fewer stripped, waxed chests. There weren't any apes, mind you, but controlled chest hair is coming back.
Remember, give your hair the attention you give your clothes. Your hair and skin are always there whether they are in good or bad shape. Clothing changes day to day and fashion season to season. Marc, Stan and I prefer to try style, which is a look that compliments you, your life, your skin and your hair and keeps you from looking like a fashion slave. If you are hair impaired as I am, and feel that managing a blow dryer is harder than trying to bend my right brain around left-brained algebra, get your stylist to recommend something you can handle as Marc and Stan always do for me.
They remind all their clients who come in with photos in hand that styles look good in a magazine because there a team of people to make it look like it was easy to accomplish. Don't be suckered in by the PIC! Ask the important question of whether the style is right with your hair AND your ability to style your hair.
Buzzwords for fall: the equestrian horsy look is hot. Leather is still high on the hit list, especially if pure and classic 0 black and brown are best. Boots rule in all forms. Look for more hats to appear as fashion musts. Sweaters are slim and body hugging - you won't look like the Michelin tire man this year or an orangutan with cuffs that are long enough to trip you. Invest in a good pair of gold hoops. It may be the only accessory you need. To dazzle at night, think rhinestones, especially on belt buckles.