Alice Catherine

I thought I’d give you a little hair update considering I kind of skimmed over the fact I snipped off a fair few inches of hair last month. I’ve had super short hair before – way shorter than it is now, and it’s something I had been considering for a while. It’s funny how much we dwell on hair, and how attached we get to it – it’s just hair after all, but it can really make a huge difference to our confidence and self esteem… 

I had been trying to grow mine – in my head I wanted this perfect Francoise Hardy/Jane Birkin length, but the reality was constant knots, having to wash it every other day, and generally just fighting against my natural frizzy/ever-growing head of curls. It just wasn’t practical, and I decided that there wasn’t much point in me having glorious long hair, if I was only ever going to wear it shoved up in a bun… 

Incase you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to my hair – I don’t mix it up much, and I’m definitely not someone who’s willing to sit and style my hair for an hour each morning. It’s just such a thick mane of hair, and I often have to straighten out my natural curl before I can add in beachy ‘effortless’ waves over the top. Let me tell you, there’s nothing effortless about my hair when it’s down – it’s usually the result of a ‘night before’ job (me sweating for hours trying to get it perfect), I’ll then wake up and freshen up the look with my straighteners and a bit of dry shampoo… 

With all this in mind, and a fair few hot and humid summer nights thrown in, I decided to go for the snip. I asked for a collarbone length bob – this way I can still tie my hair up, something which I clearly hold in very high regard. I’m a girl who likes her hair off her face, but the fringe can stay. It’s just the way I’ve always liked to style my hair, and I feel the most ‘me’ when my hair is scraped up in a signature messy bun…

When you’re someone who lives your life with your hair piled up on top of your head, it can feel like quite the event when you decide to wear it down. People suddenly think it’s okay to say things like ‘you look so much better with your hair down’, and you find yourself trying to work out whether that counts as a compliment or not. I don’t believe you need long, flowing hair to feel feminine – always style yourself in a way that feels authentic to you. It’s easy to get caught up in what other people think you should look like, which is the very reason I decided to cut off my locks and abandon the growing experiment… 

There was something quite liberating about just letting go of it all – in a weird way, it kind of felt like starting again. They say that a woman with a new haircut is a woman to be reckoned with, and it definitely does give you a new lease of life. Not to mention, my blow drying time is now around fifteen minutes, which feels absolutely glorious, and means I don’t always have to go to bed with soggy hair… 

I’m still figuring out the best way to style it – in these images I decided to take it down at the end of a shoot as I wanted a few snaps of my natural short hair. So this is just what my hair looks like when it’s been badly blow dried by yours truly, and then released from a bun (all the cool kids are doing it). I’m glad I decided to go ahead and cut it shorter, it feels like the perfect hair cut for a summer of adventures…

Photographs by Adriana

Top – And Other Stories

Blazer – Shop Suki (similar here & here)

Trousers – Topshop

Shoes – Vans mules

Bag – Staud Clothing

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