| My Worst Hair Day & How I Fixed It Contest |
| Karen Marie Shelton |
| Revised:
03/14/08 - Original Publication Date: 4/1/1999 |
Introduction
A teen zine recently held a great contest sponsored by
HairBoutique.com that was titled
"My Worst Hair Day And How I
Fixed It".
The teen zine members were asked to submit their essays describing their absolute worst
hair days and how they went about recovering from them. The judging was done by the
editor-in-chief of the zine and the Hair Boutique (Karen Shelton) based on a
predetermined point system that equaled a total potential of 100 points.
I read every single essay and they were all great. Unfortunately, there can only be a
few winners. The decision was very tough and the judges tried to be as fair as possible.
Hair Boutique is very pleased to publish the three winning entries and the 4 honorable
mentions. Our congratulations to all the girls for their great entries. We wish everyone
could have won.
Hair Boutique donated the winning prizes which included:
The winners with their point scores and their Hair Boutique prizes are:
- Grand Prize: 99 points - Steph (2 Aveda Mascara Hair Sticks)
- Second Prize: 96 points - Darcy Hull of Pepper Pike, Ohio (KMS Thermal Styling Round
Brush)
- Third Prize: 94 points - MelissaJ3H (1 Bottle of OPI Nail Polish)
Honorable Mentions:
- Kat453---93 points overall
- GLam GirLy---91 points overall
- EyeLuv2act---91 points overall
- VaeRay---91 points overall
Other great entries were received by: Dancyalien, Palpatinma, Giles, KCJ7878, Lil
Smooch, WazUp15697, DeCoRgRl, AprilMS210, Sony2468, IcYsMiLe, FOOtLocK69,
ObviousGrl,
Angel31788, GodzGal198
Without any further ado HairBoutique.com proudly presents the winning essays for your
reading pleasure.
Grand Prize Winner
by Steph (SuperStupid)
"AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!" That is what my brother and friends screamed
as they saw my hair on the night of August 8th, 1997! It was the night of my thirteenth
birthday party, and as I was blowing out the candles on my cake, WHOOSH! The bangs I had
been eagerly trying to grow out in time for back to school were on fire!!! My mom was
shrieking and went to get a bucket of water. My dad found it so funny he continued to
videotape the whole thing.
SPLASH!!! My head was soaking wet, and meanwhile all my friends sat there laughing at
me. But I would've laughed too, if it wasn't my hair that was on fire. That night I took a
cool shower and was extra fragile with my hair. I tied it back in a pony tail, and tried
to forget about it until morning.
But how was I supposed to forget about it when my friends thought it was the funniest
event in the world? As the evening progressed I learned to laugh it off, that is, until
morning came. When all of my friends had left my mom drove me to my stylist at Charles
Russel to see what she could do. Well, when my stylist finally controlled her laughter she
trimmed off most of the bangs I'd been growing for months.
She gave me some intensive leave-in conditioner to revitalize and protect my bangs, a
wide toothed comb to brush them, and she said that was all she could do. I was extra
fragile with my hair for the weeks to come and by the first day of school my bangs were
healthy again. I really can't complain that much, at least my bangs were grown out by
picture day!
Second Prize Winner
by Darcey (Groove333)
My brother just got married, and several weeks before, we had a surprise party for him,
organized by his friends. After a while I got completely bored, so I just started to watch
music videos in the basement. Now, my brother has always been a trickster, so he and his
friends decided to pull a 'bachelors trick' on me. They waited until I had dozed off, and
poured a mixture of cake batter, beer, and buttermilk in my hair! To make it worse, they
had the cats and dogs licking my hair for the milk as well. That was just disgusting. When
I got up, I had four cats, and three dogs all around me, still licking some of the remains
off. My hair was matted to the ground, and I had these huge protruding cowlicks sticking
out all over my head I looked like the Hell raiser. I must admit, looking back on it, it is
very funny.
I struggled to sit up, throwing cats and dogs every which way, and peeling the strands
of hair off the carpet. My brother jumped onto the sofa and let out this rip-roaring laugh
that I will never forget as I looked into the mirror and screamed! I jumped into the bath
and let my very long and crusty hair soak for at least an hour. I got out finally and
tried to comb through my dry and tangled hair, but that didn't help at all. I popped into
the cold shower and put in Herbal Essences Shampoo with chamomile (moisturizing for normal
hair). After lathering for twenty minutes or so and with half the bottle, I rinsed for
another ten minutes and started with some heavy duty conditioner. Paul
Mitchell's The
Detangler, Super-Charged Conditioner -moisturizer adding- (very good products), and
Biolage's Conditioning balm.
I was in the shower for two hours and was more than ready to come out, so I rinsed one
last time, put in Nexxus Headdress, Biolage's conditioning spritz (or something like
that), and topped it off with Sebastian's molding mud (for frizzes). Ahhhh, one final
combing, and then the time came for the beating of my brother!
Darcey
Third Prize Winner
"My Worst Hair Day"
By Melissa J
One day, I decided to put little streaks of blonde in my dark brown hair. I had done it
already a couple months ago, and everyone thought it looked great (but it washed out) so I
did it again. Anyways, I didn't have much time because I wanted to do this before school
started on the first day. I only had about half a hour left and still had to eat
breakfast, dressed, and put on makeup. The directions said "Leave in hair for 25
minutes." I thought
"Whatever!
I don't have that much time! I'll just leave it in for 15...after all...how much
difference would you get from a 10 min. time period?" So, I followed the steps, and
to save time...I got dressed and had my usual waffles (with a shower cap thing over the
hair substance. I had just enough time to wash it out and catch the bus. And then I
carefully took it off..and to my horror, it wasn't blonde streaks...
IT WAS GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For some reason, the color had not "completely settled in"! I was totally
freaked! I screamed and shrieked "I cant go to school today!" But my mom made
me... :( She said, what's hair ? Your personality can cover it up! Urg! Parents, they just
don't get it. So I went to school with a CK cap on. During class, I was forced to take it
off. And to my surprise, nobody even said anything! (wow!) I thought, maybe they just
didn't see it yet. But after class, I waked down the hallway and actually got some
COMPLIMENTS on my hair!
"Cool Hair" "New Trend, eh?" I was so happy! It wasn't as worse as
I thought it would be. At least it wasn't dark green (It kind of looked like a very light
lima-bean kind of color) Once I got home, I washed the stuff outta my hair ASAP!
But the next day, I went back to school and found 3 girls with the exact same
hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They actually thought it was "TRENDY!" Wow, I
started a trend! It didn't last long though, maybe a week. (Afterwards, they told me it
was kool-aid) So maybe it wasn't so bad after all :)
Melissa
Honorable Mention:
My Adventures with the Bad Hair Day
by Katie (Kat 453)
Ever since I was little, I've been told I have 'wonderful' hair. Those people have
never seen the dark side of it though. In the following monologue entitled, 'My Adventures
with the Bad Hair Day', we'll explore the dangers of my hair and also, what finally tames
it.
It was a very ordinary day. The sun was out, birds were singing and the sky was clear.
But that was only outside. Inside my room, there was a very dark and gloomy cave. In their
lurked the horrendous monster, the Bad Hair Day. Now, this monster only came out on
ordinary, nice, want to go out on a date with that hot guy, days. That's what made it
very, very dangerous.
Just like always, I got up with the sun, showered, got dressed, and then tended to my
hair. On this day, my dryer decided it only wanted to work on one level, and that would,
of course, be hot and very high. Soon after frying my curls, I went about trying to
straighten them with the curling iron.
Well, to my dismay, my hair got stuck many times, and when I was done, I not only had
straight hair (with the ends curled under), it also was sticking out everywhere. I tried
brushing, combing, wetting, gel, mousse don't even ask how that went!) and everything else
under the sun.
Finally, I was at my wits end. I dug through my closet for my emergency Bad Hair day
kit.
Inside this kit was a baseball cap, a few scrunchies and, of course, a razor (but only
for the really bad, desperate days...). I reached inside, not caring what I got, and
pulled out a neon pink scrunchy. 'Oh well,' I thought to myself, 'I guess this is better
then the razor.' I pulled my hair back, and dashed out the door so that I could escape
more damage from that evil monster.
That was my worst bad hair day yet. More soon to come, I suppose. Thank you for coming
along my journey through the past, and I hope you enjoyed my tale!
Honorable Mention:
My Adventures with the Bad Hair Day
by Jessica (GLaMgiRLy)
Right before a huge party {note that I was so excited because I had just moved and it
would be my first party with new people at my school}, my mom highlighted my hair. She
pulled it through the cap and left to go to the store. So, I carefully watched the clock
as I flipped through my magazine.
When I stood up and looked in the mirror, I saw my hair had turned white in some places
and orange in others. To make matters worse, my hair got caught in the cap {it was too
long} so I ended up having to cut half of it off.
So, I went to the party with my hair up and just said the white and orange was 'hair
mascara' {mascara for your hair}. We ended up dying it 3 more times that week to get it to
return to a normal color. I also had to cut my hair really short! Now I always go to the
salon!
-Jessica
Honorable Mention
Worst Hair Days Entry
by EyeLuv2act
I have super-long straight hair so I have had some pretty hectic - and hideous - hair
days! I could go on forever telling stories about them, but I only get to pick one for my
contest entry. There is one that really sticks out in my mind though.
It was the night before third grade class pictures and I decided for my pics I needed
Shirley Temple-inspired curls, but it was too late to get a perm. I begged my mom to put in
those pink sponge curlers, but of course she said no.
Mothers -- ya can't live with 'em, ya can't live without 'em! Being the little demon I
am, I couldn't take no for an answer, so when the coast was clear, I ran into the bathroom
to get the curlers. Finally when everyone was asleep, I went to work. I put the first
couple of curlers in nicely, making sure each one was perfect. As I went on, my hands got
tired and I just wanted to go to bed. I knew I had to finish though, so I rushed and got
done quickly. It was better than nothing, I thought. I was wrong!
The next morning I woke up to my alarm clock, excited to see what my hair looked like.
I got out of bed and immediately started taking out the curlers. The first few looked
fabulous. Those were the ones I took my time on. Then I tried to take out another one, but
it was stuck. Same with the next...and the next!
My hair was stuck in the curlers! I ran downstairs to show my mom. She was NOT happy
with me that morning. After she unsuccessfully tried her hand with the curlers, we went
with plan B: cut the curlers out of my hair! By the time we got all that taken care of, I
looked more like Medusa than Shirley Temple! Needless to say, I got retakes that year. What
a nightmare!
Honorable Mention
Worst Hair Days
by VaeRay
Everyone has bad hair days, everyone has good hair days. It's simple, but not simple to
fix! My hair is the worst when it comes to bad hair days and I should just give up, but in
our school-PEER PRESSURE IS THE WORST!
It was picture day-of course!-and the night before I had put in sponge curlers because
my hair is straighter than Alix's! When I woke up I had noticed that some of the curlers
had fallen out, but I didn't bother to put them back in, why waste the energy!?!?
After I had gotten ready it was about 7:15 and my ride came at 7:40, so I took the
curlers out and the ends were all crimped under and the curls were limp and looked
terrible-I had no idea what to do so I tried to brush them but it only got frizzy and I
looked like Annie that had spent 30 years in the orphanage and hadn't combed her hair in
20 years!
It was 7:30 now, I had ten minutes to fix it and I had no idea what to do. I couldn't
wear a bandanna, one, it's against school dress code, two, it wasn't like me, and three, I
looked like a housewife! I finally got so tired of my hair that I put it in a ponytail,
which, I know isn't very cre-8-ive but it looked like the only thing I could do at the
time. When I got my pictures back, I realized how bad of a hair day I had! The ponytail had
made me look like I had a really bad hair cut and made my neck look really skinny and
long!
I guess I learned something that day though! Never wear a ponytail when you don't have
to! (Especially on picture days!) And don't put your hair in sponge curlers by
yourself-have someone else help you! The best thing I learned on that day was: THE WORST
TIME TO HAVE A BAD HAIR DAY IS ON PICTURE DAY!~!~!~!
-VaeRay |