BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SHAVED, trimmed and even the ‘big chop’ are some of the work that go into creating low-cut hairstyles for women.
It is said that a woman’s hair is her beauty; hence, there are some females who believe that longer the hair and bigger its volume make better…the beauty. The same can be said about low-cut hairstyles, because there are women who equally think that short styles bring out their physical attractiveness much better. They posited that low-cut hairstyles speak to low-cost maintenance as against the often high maintenance routine for long hair.
Apart from the beauty aspect, there are some females with a tomboy taste who go for the low-cut look also.
SKNVibes’ ‘Fashionista Paparazzi’ recently visited Diva Hair on Rose Mary Lane in Basseterre, which is owned and operated by popular hairstylist Danielle Riddick, who is a licenced cosmetologist from the USA.
Two customers, Keisha Weekes and Tessa, were present at the salon rocking short Bobs, which, according to Riddick, is currently one of the more popular hairstyles.
This media house spoke with the two ‘Bob Beauties’ about their hairstyle preferences.
Here is what they had to say:
KEISHA WEEKES
“I love to wear my hair short. Why? They say when you get older you look better when your hair is shorter. So that’s why I love my hair like this. Why I chose this style that I’m wearing and the colour? A lot of my friends didn’t recognise me. Many of them were like, ‘Keisha?’ and I replied, ‘Hi’ and ‘Yah.’ They said, ‘Girl you look different with that colour’, and I said, ‘Thank you.’
“This colour makes me look different. All the time I’m always wearing black and everyone is already accustomed to me with the black. How I came up with this style, is that a customer came and said she wanted highlights and she bought a Revlon box colour.
“It didn’t come out as bright as she wanted and she told me to keep the rest and I tried it in my hair. I said to myself, ‘Boy!’ I never had this type of colour in my hair but I had red hair in my days, so I just went ahead with it.
“When I saw my hair this colour, I said, ‘Wow, my hair looks good! My hair is very short so I went down to Lucky’s Cosmetics to find a hair extension with the hair colour.
“Some people said they liked it while some said they didn’t. But eventually it grew on me and those who didn’t like it before, they fell into pattern and they loved it off, so I said let me keep it for a while. But I’m ready to go back to my black because this type of hair colour you have to make sure to oil it all the time or else it would look dull and rusty.
“When I fix it, nobody likes it. But when I don’t fix it, everybody likes it, and they say the staler it gets the better it looks.”
TESSA
“I prefer my hair funky. I like simple funky dos. I’ve kept my hair short for four years now…no different colours, just black.
Tessa has been a customer of Diva Hair for about one year.
“I could just sit in her chair and say, ‘Danielle hook me up.’ She knows what I like.”
ABOUT THE HAIR DIVA LADY
Riddick told SKNVibes that she has been in the hair salon business for about seven or eight years and, before that, she was a nail technician for about 12 years.
In 2005, she graduated from the Empire Beauty School in New York.
Interestingly though, she had been doing hair for a number of years before she decided to professionalise her skills.
“I like doing hair. I enjoy it. Some people ask me which I like best. I say I like hair more than nails. I like doing hair. Just to see the person’s face when you finished doing it and they say something like, ‘Oh this looks nice’ or whatever is their reaction I enjoy it. I really do.”
In response to what technique she uses in her profession and what hairstyles she prefers, Riddick said, “I love cutting hair. That’s what I love to do. But I like doing weave also…but I love cutting hair. I love short styles, funky styles…this (Bob) style right here…I like. It’s very popular right now.”
Riddick is known to look stylishly sharp from head to toe. She currently has both sides of her head shaven…a style which she actually did herself.
And when asked about her personal style, she responded: “I like funky hair. I don’t like hair in my face and I don’t like a lot of hair. So this is what I normally do…I shave the sides down and leave the top, so if I want to put weave or something in there, the top is long enough to be versatile with it.”
Information gleaned from http://beauty.about.com/od/shorthairstyles/ss/bobcuts.htm revealed that highly acclaimed New York City salon owner Eva Scrivo, in her book ‘Eva Scrivo on Beauty’, disclosed that “the bob originated during World War I as women joined the workforce and no longer had time for pin curls and straightening irons.
"Cropped hair became a badge of freedom, rebellion, and independence for working women who had also just gained the right to vote”.
