Ritsuka trial run -- hair

After lunch today, my mum and I drove to town so she could go grocery shopping and I could get my hair cut. I've been growing out my hair since January for Ritsuka and printed out two of the best visual references I could find of Ritsuka's hair before leaving the house.

Going to get my hair cut almost always makes me at least a little nervous. In general, unless I want it styled a certain way, I'll just trim it at home even though it doesn't always come out even. With professional cuts, there's the personal interaction and the explaining of what anime is and why I chose to style my hair after my particular character. It can be fun and it's usually worth it in the long run, but it depends a lot on who the stylist is.

Fortunately, I happened to be paired with very enthusiastic stylist who was easy to talk to and had cut my hair once before. She also graduated from my high school a year after I did, but I honestly don't remember seeing her at all during school.

When I showed her my pictures of Ritsuka, she was excited to be doing something unusual and different. She also called Ritsuka 'she', but what do you expect from young male anime characters? 'This is fun! It's more like art with hair, which is what I originally wanted to do [as opposed to generic haircuts and trims].' My bangs and sides weren't quite long enough yet, but she worked with it and styled it so that it would look right when it grew out in a few months. I let her do whatever she thought best, only offering suggestions when she asked me; after all, I don't know very much about hair styling and she was happy to have a chance to experiment a little.

My stylist was very happy with the back, but neither of us were quite sure how best to style the front. Another hair stylist who had just finished with her customer and was drifting close to us came to offer her advice. Both of them got really into it and were excited about making sure the cut came out well. 'It's so fun!' was said repeatedly and my stylist let her perfectionist side peek through. Eventually, it was decided to part my hair over to the left instead of parting it down the centre like Ritsuka's since the former is how my hair parts naturally and my bangs are still short compared to Ritsuka's.

I was quite happy with the way it came out and was surprised at how little trimming and layering had to be done. Since my hair's thin, she used both volumizing shampoo and another foam hair thickener at my roots in addition to layering my back and sides a bit. However, she actually thinned my ends to make them more wispy. Other than that, the majority of it was done with styling products -- a hair paste for the sharp angles and general style and dry wax spray to keep it (mostly) in place.

Apparently, my stylist had so much fun that she gave me a card with her name on it and said she hoped I came back before PortCon for a follow-up trim. She also suggested I come to model for her at a hair styling competition they have every April. o_o By the time I left (it took about an hour), I think I had all of the stylists watching me.

. . . I suppose by now you'll be wanting photos, right?

I aim to please.

( Before and after. (These aren't the Ritsuka cosplay photos; those will come next. Unfortunately, my hair did get mussed up a little before I could take photos as we stopped at Salvation Army on the way to pick up a Ritsuka top.) )