What do you always do to your hair?! Almost instantly, the answer came out: I just love it!
Hair is 50% of the outfit, if not more. 50% of one’s style altogether, if not more. Of one’s lifestyle. While I’m thinking about hair, life, style, and putting them on paper next to one another, I can see how they complement each other. My brain is typing straightforwardly, skipping everything and focusing on everything at once. It’s called a train of thought and it can’t be stopped. Nor can the idea that everything connects.
Hair, to me, has always been my lover, my bestie, a part of the family, family is a part of me, just as hair is, newsflash! Hair is a part of us literally, so why not treat it as such? As a lover or as a brother. That’s not the same thing, Cristina. Precisely, I would reply, it depends on the hair’s mood. The hair’s mood is always in sync with my mood, even when I don’t consciously put a finger on it. I don’t think I’ve ever styled my hair the same way twice. It has to be a little or a lot different, every time. Not on purpose. I guess we just like to surprise each other. Pleasantly, almost all of the time. A bad hair day is not that fun. Attention to the in sync thing is key. Coming from me, sure, but coming from my hair, too. Attention to what it genuinely wants to be. Hairstyle, hopefully.
When I first saw The Weeknd in the Earned It video, I thought Uh, here’s a Basquiat fan, but also Hm… Basquiat… In 2018, when Jay-Z popped up on my Instagram, vacationing with Beyoncé, while On The Run II, I told myself Uh, there’s another one! And again Hm… Basquiat... In 2014, Jay-Z’s costume for Halloween was Jean-Michel Basquiat, go figure. And with no connection in the world or with the connection of the world, a video of Jay-Z talking to a nice lady, circa 2013, on the subway, comes to mind. He was wearing a Jean-Michel Basquiat t-shirt. What’s with all these years? It’s the journey, I believe, and yet another train can’t be stopped here, aw.
Many of the people who let their hair grow, fans or no fans of Basquiat, are fans of hair and they don’t even know it. They must be, right? Hair is 50% of the personality, if not more. Dreadlocks, short, coloured, not coloured, bald, curly, straightened out, straight, volume, no volume, brown, blonde, red, black, grey, white, pulled up in a bun, France24 news anchors’ hair to play with, almost all the other news anchors’ full of spray hair, done, not done, in layers, carré, around seven billion types of hair, cuts, textures, colours, hallelujah!
We could make a whole new chapter called HAIR here. Hm! It says something about us. Just like every thing does. Jean-Michel Basquiat embodies an iconic allure that feels and is so fresh to the day, it’s what icons do. The truth is always fresh. Sexy. And when you’re a Basquiat fan and true to yourself, Basquiat’s hair becomes a message you receive first, and then it’s up to you to pass it on to the world. It took about 50 years for Jay-Z to decide to let his hair grow, but it came in such a natural way that it seems like no other era would’ve suited him quite like the era we’re in today! He pays attention to it. To hair. To him. To her. On the masculine side.
On the feminine one, it’s Beyoncé, with super hair and a fan — isn’t it a bit strange that a ventilator is also called a fan, lol? — in front of it, hello! Strategically placed, blowing from different directions that make the stage a world on its own when she’s performing. There’s always a fan that amplifies a particular effect the hair can have on a particular note. You with me? I heard her saying once that she loves being near the ocean and maybe this is the aforementioned world she creates. And in that world, her hair always flies, I feel her, what can I say. Who doesn’t like the ocean?
Imagination is vital. But so is passion. The video of Beyoncé’s hair sticking in a fan, during a concert, comes to mind. It hurts, just like a bad hair day does, but then passion comes in, again and again.
It was during brunch — on a Sunday morning with friends, post a party on Saturday, wonderful late winter light outside, teas and desserts on the table inside, prosecco thcin-tchining — that a friend of a friend asked me: Cristina, what do you always do to your hair?! We were far away from each other, seated on diametrically opposed sides of a long, crowded table. Almost instantly, the answer came out: I just love it!
I filmed a video — that is now on YouTube — while on a snowboard trip, four years ago, for the friends who were asking me how I style my hair. It was then that I took the photograph that ended up fronting WHO IS OZ AND WHY IN PARIS on ozinparis.com.
I wanted to just stay inside, in the chalet, enjoy the soreness, listen to music, drink black tea with honey, dance, take a hot shower and snuggle into soft clothes, amid the last days in Kitzbühel. Sounds like a good hair day, right? The method that includes a rotating brush, in the video, is still one that I’m using and it still takes me about 10 minutes. Another method includes a blowdryer and a brush. The salon method, but not really. It takes about 13-15 minutes.
Stay tuned, right? In tune.
