Saturday, October 20, 2007

The hunt for the perfect hairdo!

There comes a time, or rather, many times, in all girls' lives when they look at themselves in the mirror and think "I need a new look!" And that time has arrived yet again for yours truly. Before this, I always went to the hair saloon requesting for my 'usual' cut... medium length V-shaped layered cut. Occasionally I'd get my hair dyed my favourite colour, red, but it would always eventually end up brown (cheapo hair dyes!). The most adventurous do I've ever had was a long perm, which turned out rather weird, especially when my normal hair grew so half my hair was curly and half of it was straight (I have my horrendous IC picture to prove it). As such, I've learned that perms are a big no-no for me.... though perhaps it was just permed to be wavy, it would still look pretty good. Just no Maggi Mee styles!

Lately I was thinking how nice it would be if there was some way to see how different hairstyles looked on me before actually doing it at the saloon... and today a spark went off in my head.... there probably IS a way to 'experiment' with different hairstyles...through the internet! There must be some website or program that allows people to upload their photos and try out different types of do's... So I did the search, and the first website I found was Stellure.com. It's a very cool website where users can upload a pic of themselves, and it become a 3D model on which you can sort of 'cut and paste' different hairstyles on your computer model to see how it looks at all angles! Very da cool! Only one slight-ish problem...you gotta pay for the software before you can use it. So for extremely kiamsup people like me who likes everything free and also doesn't trust the security of anything paid through the net, Stellure.com was not a option. So I tried to search for similar but free websites....and mostly came up with a bunch of similar hairstyling softwares that also have to be paid for.

Finally, after a long and tiresome search (ok lah, not that long...) I found the Makeover-O-Matic Virtual Makeover Game! Does the same thing as Stellure, except the uploaded photos and do's can only be seen from the front view, no angles. Which is much better than nothing! Admittedly, the number of hairstyles available there to experiment with isn't much, but it's not too bad. And if you can't find what you want there, there is also MakeoverSolutions.com, which you can do exactly the same thing, but there are other hairstyles to play with... The demo version for this is free with only about 100 styles to play with, but of course if you are willing to fork out moolah, a motherload of other hairstyles will become available for you to feed your hunger for different do's. Still the demo version was good enough for me, coz' I found lots of looks I liked from these two websites alone.

Both sites allowed me to try putting the hairstyles of various celebrities on my pic.... and the results were quite interesting, and I have complied some of the more interesting looks into 3 categories:
1) Celebrity hairdos that look pretty good (on me)!
2) Celebrity looks that should stay on celebrities (not on me)!, and
3) Celebrity looks that are just plain funny (on me)!


For Category No. 1, the Cameron Diaz and Catherine Z.J. looks both are radically different, but I like them both. Cameron's short bob looks pretty good on me.... I wouldn't even mind dying my hair to that colour too! Catherine's do, however, is long and slightly curly which is sooo totally glamorous baby! BUT it's obviously very high maintenance, and I prefer to keep to the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

I was surprised that No. 3 and 4, although very different from what I would normally do, actually do look quite alright on me. I like the colour of Kelly's do (which wasn't actually her do, just that it looks like a hairstyle she would have ;)), but I don't think gravity-defying ability of this do would last long. No.4 looks like a style similar to what Charlize Theron would have (except blonde, not black). It's looks....ok on me...perhaps it would have been nicer with more colour and if my makeup was less goth in this pic (did I mention both websites allow you to change your picture's makeup too? Yes, it's very cool!)

Now for Category No.2, we have the celebrity looks that look good on them but definitely not on me .Jennifer Aniston's hair looks great on Jennifer.... not on me. Drew Barrymore hair makes me look like an unbalanced mushroom. Halle Berry's hair kinda makes me look likes I was electrocuted by the Mad Science Van der Graff generator. The best looking do among these four actually seems to be the Scary Spice afro do.... haha! And we all know the only way I'd get that do is if I was going to a Halloween party dressed at Scary Spice... or maybe one of the Alleycats....


And for the 3rd and final category of celebrity makeovers, I have here all the looks that I should never attempt to try. Even in my wildest dreams. Coz' they just look dumb. Take the classic beehive, which is a popular look with Amy Winehouse. Now she can miraculously pull off a beehive without looking like a Conehead with hair. I, on the hand, am not quite blessed with the features for pulling off the beehive. As for No.2, I think I would go for this look if I was auditioning for a role in Hairspray 2. But I don't think I ever would coz' as much as I appreciate the incredible amount of hard work that must've gone into making that musical, the ridiculous amount of fake grins and over-exaggerated excitement in that movie almost made me want to gag. The Macy Gray look, well, that a look that should be reserved for the black sistas' and them alone.... And last but not least... the classic 80's rock band look. This hairdo would probably give me sudden urges to dance to Van Halen's 'Jump'.

Of course, why those styles above would look rather ridiculous on me, they are nothing compared to come of the other wild and wacky do's I found on the websites. And so, I present to you.... the Top 6 hairstyles I'd get if I went completely bonkers! Complete with lame punchlines, which I shall put at the side as well, since the pictures came out smaller than I intended....


7) "I'm a big fan of yours... really I am!"


6) Scientists have just discovered a new species of giant blue sunflowers.... growing on my head!"


5) "With this device, the Martians will surely be able to contact me now...


4) "What? It's not the 80's anymore?? And I wasted all that hairspray..."


3) "Yes, I DO take up more bed space, but at least Astro doesn't go down anymore when it rains!"

2) "Anyone need some Kleenex?"





And the no. 1 Hairdo I would get if I went completely bonkers...

1) "Excuse me, is this your Shih Tzu that died on my head?"






So now that you've either laughed or puked yourself silly reading my lame-O punchlines, it's time to get serious and looksee at some of the styles I would consider for my next do:



8) Upswept gorgeous

Ok, I'm not planning to have this as a permanent do, but it IS something I might consider for a fancy event, like a big prom, or maybe my wedding. Looks a bit too high here though...should've placed the hair a little lower to make it look more balanced. Anyhow, I like the highlights too. Adds a nice touch. But so far, I haven't been bothered to get my tresses all teased up for any fancy event... and even for my wedding I think I'd prefer to look like a more gorgeous version of myself instead of a beehive queen wannabe. Oh well, it just looks nice.


7) A little flare

This is one of those styles that look pretty good here, but in real life, I think it just wouldn't work. For one, my hair doesn't have this kind of volume... Two, the flaring ends would probably make my face look bigger than it already is.. That wouldn't be good. So it's another nice one to look at... but not in real life!





6) Medium length coloured

A nice sleek, professional look. Looks pretty similar to styles I've had before... but again, my hair would suffer the lack of volume issue, so maybe it wouldn't work for me. And anyhow, it's not quite the different look I'm aiming for... but it still looks good.






5) The messy bob

I didn't think the messy look would suit me, but looking at this pic, I quite like the results. It's cute with a tinge of rebellious.... unfortunately it's also not very professional looking, which might not go down well where I work. So no go for the messy bob (maybe later on when I'm feeling exceptionally adventureous!)




4) Long with wavy ends

Surprisingly, this is one of the few medium length do's that I really liked (the others I really like are all short styles). It's quite a romantic, slightly glamorous look...and I love the wavy bit at the end. But looks a bit too high maintenance for someone who tends to jump out of bed in morning, run the brush through her hair a couple of times before flying out the door.







3) Cute short bob

This looks very good on me... very cute, quite neat, low maintenance... all very good traits. Only thing is that it's rather boring. No zing. Nice, cute, neat, but normal. Anyone can get away with this hairstyle, but I'd prefer something a bit more zing...






2) Cameron Diaz look

Ah yes, this is more like it! Also very cute and short, but the few longer strands at the sides at the 'oomph' to this look. Unfortunately, since this cut was taken directly off an actual pic of Cameron Diaz, I wasn't given the freedom to change the colour to match what I would prefer. Nevertheless, I'm sure it would still look good in black or reddish black. :) But as good as it looks, it's hairstyle No. 1 that really got me hook, line and sinker...which is....



1) Highlights take the prize!

This is it, ladies and gents! The look that I totally fell for the second I saw it! Not too short, not too neat. Slightly messy, but not too messy. And the blonde bleached highlights are FAAAb-ulous, baby! I like!

Of course, the main issue for this style would be the cost of the highlights, which I'm guessing would be purty high... And also, since I have dyed my hair red quite some time ago, I now have black hair closest to my roots while the rest is that annoying faded brown colour. So highlighting above this might look a bit strange.... unless I re-dye my hair at home first... then a week later, go to the saloon for this look. Hmm..... sounds likes a plan.

So anyway, ladies, now that you know these sites exist, try not to have too much fun experimenting with your look. Cheers!

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