Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Techniques that look effortless

So... I took my daughter to the hairdresser for her fourteenth birthday. She got her hair cut and colored. Then the hairdresser styled her long locks in a super cool way. I watched carefully as she wrapped my daughter's hair around the outside of the curling iron. I asked why she was doing that instead of the usual way of using a curling iron.
"Because this is how Taylor Swift does it," the hairdresser replied. My eyes must've widened in obvious surprise, because she asked, "What? Are you not a Taylor Swift fan?"

"Taylor Swift is great," I quickly answered, as the hairdresser held my daughter's hair hostage with a burning iron (jk). "I'm just impressed (surprised) that you know how Taylor does her hair." I tried to smile politely.

She smiled back and continued curling my daughter's hair. It looked AMAZING when she was finished. And, it looked so easy to duplicate. Ha.

So, fast forward to last night. My daughter and I discussed her many hair options for picture day (today). She smiled and asked if I'd help her do the Taylor Swift hair-do.

"Sure, piece of cake!" I said. "Wake me up at 6:00a.m. and that will give us forty-five minutes. More than enough time to make your hair gorgeous!" Agreed on our strategy, my daughter headed off to bed.

Morning came extra early today as I heard my daughter bustling around at 5:30a.m. getting showered and ready for the day. At 6:10, she knocked on my door.  I blew out her hair, just like the hairdresser did. I wrapped her hair around the outside of the iron, just like the hairdresser did. And... well... the results were not the same. I could not figure out what I was doing differently. But, it certainly did not look like Taylor Swift's hair.

So, we decided to straighten it. Which took longer. Which caused her to miss the bus. Which caused me to happily drive her to school.

For some reason, I'm not sure she appreciated me singing happily along to the radio in the car. Of course, I changed the words to one of Phil Collins songs. Ha. I sang, "I'm happy to go to Columbia... to get my picture taken... I'm gonna smile big and show my pretty expensive teeth... I'm happy to go to Columbia..."

Yah. Well. I'm not Taylor Swift's hairdresser either.

But, it made me think. Often times I read a book and think about how awesome the writing is and how the author makes it look so easy. Surely, just by observing it I should be able to duplicate the process... right? Not. Professionals know tricks, techniques, and methods for creating something amazing that looks effortless.  Only through hard work and practice will we be able to achieve the same level of talent.

I need to call my hairdresser and ask her for lessons.

4 comments:

  1. What a cool birthday idea/treat! I'm sure her hair turned out great, Taylor Swift or no. Not having much hair myself, except on my face, I'm not sure I can relate to the difficulty in duplicating what the stylist has done. Although, my wife has lamented the same thing many times.

    Way to be an awesome mom, Margo!

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  2. Good use of a real story to illistrate a writing point!

    Christi Corbett

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  3. EJ - Awesome mom... ha. But, thanks! BTW, her school picture turned out GREAT! She was thrilled, even if we didn't manage the Taylor Swift look.

    Chrisi - thanks!

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  4. Ha ha! You are so right! I can never get my hair just like the hairdresser either!! Hopefully, my writing is better than my hair!

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