Le Chop

Author: Garance Doré

(Sorry for the 50 sec egotrip, I thought it’d be the best way to show you my cut).“I think I’m gonna chop it all off.”…“Ok. G, we gotta talk.”That’s the text I got from most of my friends when I asked them about my idea of chopping off my hair. I mean, granted. The inspiration photo I sent over was this one:

I even took the time to specify that I didn’t want the blonde version of this cut, but like, just a me version. Yet still, pretty bad feedback.And I also got things like this:Whatever you decide, you’re beautiful, anything would work on you. (From my Mother, not too risky)I would be worried about the soccer mom look. (From a friend who has watched a little too much Friday Night Lights)If I had your hair, I’d cut it off right away. (From a friend with an afro)I’d worry about the texture. With your frizzy hair, it might take over your head. (From a friend with a perpetual ponytail)Honestly, I feel like you’ve needed a change for some time now. (From Scott)On top of that, there was all my questions…1/ Will I look like a man?I think this is the universal question any woman asks when she thinks of cutting her hair off. “Will I lose my femininity?”It’s a totally archaic thought and completely unreasonable, but that can’t stop us from freaking out about it. I was totally freaked out.2/ Am I going to end up with a Kerry Russell?

That’s definitely the second worry. How will my hair react to the new length? Curls are pretty treacherous, so I was super worried that they would go crazy with no length weight to tame them.I calmed myself down thinking that a keratin treatment could save anything. Also, I would leave it just long enough to tuck it behind my ears if a disaster occurs.And if push comes to shove, I would strong-hold-gelify it until it grows back sometime in late 2015 if my calculations were correct.3/ Who’s going to cut my hair?“You have to go see a good stylist.” “It’s super important.” “I know Rihanna’s hair-dresser if you want me to pass your name along.” (Oh, fashion people…)After everyone flipped out about the necessity that I see The Best Stylist In The World to get my hair short, I decided to go see Adrienne again at The Drawing Room. I felt particularly good with her and she worked on my previous haircut with the eye of the tiger and the care of a wolf (French expression ahah, you know what I mean).Ok… After hours and hours of consultations with my friends, my shrink (“If your friends are telling you to not cut your hair, maybe it’s because they’re giving their opinion for themselves…”), and hours upon hours looking for inspiration, I really couldn’t go back.Unless Adrienne said that short hair wouldn’t work on me. The opinion of my hair-dresser would last thing standing between me and short hair. And I wouldn’t have the guts to contradict her.So I told her about my idea and showed her 300 inspiration photos I liked, what I didn’t like, and even what I had in the past.

(Ok so this is definitely an in between photo when my hair was growing back out. Be nice.)And then I waited for her reaction…“Short hair would look GREAT on you!!! It’d be perfect!”I had my response. Holy shit (excuse my language but that’s what I thought, actually : “Putain de Merde !”). I sat and got a shampoo, feeling the pleasure of hands running through long hair for the last time.And what happened next was sort of weird.I wish I could tell you that I broke into a cold sweat, but honestly, not at all. I was pretty quiet.Adrienne divided my hair into several parts, formed two little buns on top of my heads (very chic) and then started cutting on the side.I heard the snip and my hair fell to the ground, but like I do at the doctor with needles, I didn’t want to look.It took a while… That’s when at one point, Adrienne couldn’t help but say, “It’s now too late to turn back.”Okay, I admit, I might have thrown up in my mouth a little right there (sorry, American expression, feels gross but so funny !!!) (No?)And then she kept cutting.So weird. Suddenly, it was like you could see my face. It’s like the light found its way there, my cheeks finding daylight. I knew that it couldn’t be a total disaster.And then finally she said, “I think we’re done!!!”We looked at it together, and then I heard myself say…“What if we took the sides in even more?”I had gone to the dark side of the force.She laughed and said, “Yeah! I think so too! I was afraid to ask…” and went back to work.15 minutes later, I was strolling down the street having no idea what was going on atop my head. I didn’t want to send photos to friends because my the cut is the opposite of stiff: every time I put my hand through my hair, it changes (hence the video). And I wanted to see their reactions, live.And so, I was supposed to meet up with a friend… Stress stress stress…She loved it.(Okay, you tell me, maybe she knew that I would’ve crawled into a hole if she said anything negative, but I would answer to you this was a very French friend, the kind who has absolutely no idea about how to sugar-coat things.)And then I went home. I was sort of drunk (What? We had to celebrate !!!) (Also one margarita gets me drunk) so I spent an entire hour staring at the mirror trying to figure out what had just happened. Loving it one minute, feeling like my life was over the minute after.And the next day, the ultimate test… I washed my hair to see what would happen.Honestly, that’s when the real miracle occurred. I stuck my hair behind my ears, didn’t bother with lotion, and waited for them to dry. An hour later, it was like you see in the video here, and all that without keratin or anything else.That was the big unknown in the equation but now I know – my hair has a pretty good texture when it’s short.I’m in heaven.And now, I get to enjoy everyone freaking out whenever they first see me. Everyone has loved it so far (but then again, everyone isn’t French)… So I was thinking… What do you think?—Click here to watch the video on your mobile device!Thanks to Adrienne and Clyde at The Drawing Room! My tee-shirt is from Maison Labiche and vive Pharell and Robin ;)Translation: Tim Sullivan