As I expect to be taking a maternity leave for the better part of the summer (you can follow that journey over at zerotobaby.com), I am sure that this means I will have to entertain all my hair whims by blog.  To start, within the next month, I expect to work on putting a window into this page to showcase all the lovely photos of your hair that I’ve been taking and tweeting.

Until then, all you hair hoppers, I leave you with a little love and inspiration!  Be sure to shake your butt while you watch and giggle…

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Through generations of cultural controversy,  the veiled woman has  been revered as a creature of wonder.  Google searching the phrase veiled woman - you are immediately fed lines about the glory and sacrifice of the veil.  Some revere, some revile.   Overall, everyone has a powerful response.  It can’t be denied that the veil has significance that can be tackled with about a million different adjectives.

I admit to my many well documented fashion follies.  I had my grunge phase, my riot grrrl phase, my druggy shoe gazing baby doll dress plus big eye glasses wearing stage, horribly fashioned raver days, a few neo-hippie in techie fabric minimally modern years, hipster looks, electro trash hooks, and some very expensively heeled New York fashionista moments…but my grandmother’s generation had something I have not until recently been sporting… a look that has stood the test of decades.  It can not be argued that there is power in a well cut suit, hair that is set once a week, and the ultimate French Blusher.

I became obsessed with the endlessly sexy young sister of the veil, the French Blusher, many years before I actually worked up the nerve to start wearing them.   I sought out crumbling and ripped blushers in the corners of small town antique stores and wondered over the supreme style of my grandmother’s generation.  A few of the blushers I have, too covered with dust and breaking apart to ever be appreciated on a lady’s head again, carry with their scent of magic and lust some questions.  Did the ladies who wore them purposely tear holes in netting near their mouths so that they could smoke long cigarettes without pushing aside veils (it seems, looking at many old blushers, that they did)?  Did the veils manage to prolong the hours of a date before kissing a suitor?  Was a veil appropriate before 6?   Was a veil appropriate without gloves?  I will probably never know the full story of the French veil and all of it’s rules (or abandonment of rules) in my grandmother’s lifetime.  But I have been committed for the last year or so to recreating the magic for myself.

When I declared to my fiancé that I was going to wear a veil at our wedding, he balked.  Veils, to him, symbolized oppression of women.  A veil at a wedding, in particular, seemed an archaic idea.  I guess that, in this time of endless cultural revolution, when the veiling of women in the Middle East is seen by my demographic as arcane, his only appropriate response would be one of total modernization.  Naturally I wanted to be exactly the sort of bride he wanted to see walking down proverbial aisle towards the beginning of the rest of our lives… but the type of bride I pictured myself as being was wearing a blusher, beaming at him from behind that slip of netting.  In the end (of course), I did what I wanted- because a girl like me only has the chance to get married in a veil once.  Here I am on the left in my bridal veil, with my friend, hairstylist and teacher, Norman, behind me.  The photo on the right is of  my husband and I later that night, at our reception.

I glad to report that I am not the only girl who has felt the need to top herself with this most glorious of accessories.  New York’s 2009 Fall Fashion week featured all sorts of designers who are happy to top heads loudly.  Cynthia Steffe made her girls instantly glamorous with a jaunty bun on top of their perfect heads, and a classic blusher around the eyes.  I think that what I like most about this particular blusher look is its simplicity.  Looks like this should prove to any woman that raucous glamor doesn’t necessarily have to come with a cost of time.  Add a few accessories to a simple ‘do, and you can suddenly find yourself with a seriously attention grabbing tribute to vanity.

If you’re feeling as if there’s too much rocker in you to be such a lady, please turn to last month’s Diesel Black and Gold show for a more rugged look without risking a loss of sex appeal.  I loved their torn netting headbands and blushers, and hope to somehow incorporate the feel of their show into my look this fall.  Luckily, I have several months to figure out my execution…

Ladies of Seattle, You are sure able to rock a head of hair on your brilliant heads.  Could a girl like me have more inspiration than all of you?  Here is some of the the short, medium, and long of it:

It seems that they are looking to hire creative international stylist!.  So tempting, I must say.  Sunny and warm southern Europe seems like an incredible dream as we sit through winter in Seattle.  I have always wanted to at least visit Lisbon.  Now I am reignited to save for a trip someday.  I need a WIP-Hairport cut!

You  know, I was thinking recently about the complicated women’s hairstyles of the 1940s.  Everyone was on rations, so people got creative with the one thing they had that could afford shifting expression.  Hair grew and shoulder pads followed.  I certainly hope to see a similar spirit during the next several months of economic hardship.  No one is going to notice that you’re wearing tattered clothing when your hair is a work of art.

To start, with a mix of both sadness and excitement,  I would like to announce that I will no longer be returning to New York City on a regular work-basis.  I feel in my heart that I need to concentrate on my life and career in Seattle right now.

The past year of running back and forth has been really beautiful, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to live the way that I have. Not many girls get to fly back and forth between two amazing cities to do hair! There hasn’t been one moment when I have not felt like the luckiest bi-coastal girl around.

While the past year has been magic, it has also been rather exhausting.  I find that I don’t have quite enough time to spend with my new husband while I run around loving up on everyone’s hair.

So, now that I feel I’ve finally found a salon where I can be happy in Seattle, NYC and I are taking a break. We’ve lately became more about memory and nostalgia than about opportunity and future. I guess this is always what happens when we take a little space after a passionate, all-consuming love affair and break-up. You move on!  You get a new haircut! You live your life in a new way that you didn’t think was even a possibility just a few short years back.

Talking to my salon owners at Space in New York the other day, It felt like I was snipping a magic cord and telling my family I had to go. Space has shown me nothing but love through the years. I take away from that salon everything I know and feel confident about professionally. I only know how to do some serious hair because they took the time and the trouble to teach me.  They also supported my move to Seattle with love in their hearts, and let me lead my own way with coming and going. I hope that all my great New York clients will continue to go there for services. Every person at space is an amazing hair-stylist and an amazing individual.

Please let me know if I can help you choose another hairstylist at Space in NYC for your specific needs!  And, don’t fret, every time I plan on coming back to New York, I hope to contact all of my wonderful clients there for a reunion haircut at Space.  Plus, you can always comment here or email me.  We can be in touch as much or as little as we like!  Isn’t technology great?!

Of course, you can also come see me in Seattle… where the views are beautiful and the haircuts are very affordable! I hope I do see you at VAIN sometime, it’s an amazing and inspirational creative Seattle hotspot where I am very proud to work!