New Hair Ideas - Blowing Open Your Mind

One of the things I dread most in life is being required to attend some type of human gathering that is not of my choosing.  A good case in point is jury duty.  Finding myself locked in an auditorium with literally hundreds of strangers just freaks my freak, as Ellen might say.

Although I'm basically an extrovert, I'm also an introvert at the same time.  Which can be challenging and confusing to others who experience me. It's not that I'm shy, it's more that I stand back and try to establish my bearings before diving in to the fray.  Being introverted before being extroverted.

Once I do begin to feel comfortable in a new and strange setting, my extrovert personality gains control and I find myself warming to the idea of meeting new people.  When the willingness to embrace new people opens, my mind instantly expands to include new ideas.  You guessed it, the ideas are often about hair.  Didn't I warn you I'm obsessed about hair?

HairBoutique.com is my own little hair bubble.  I've spent over ten years in that website built of hair.

Which means at times I lose my ability to absorb new philosophies about hair. I become near sighted, which is a common human experience.  If we always eat oatmeal for breakfast we may lose our ability to think about what it would be like to eat cake or soup for breakfast. (Yes, I eat both from time to time).

Philosophies about hair?  New hair ideas?

Although I often consider myself extremely open minded about everything hair, when I step outside my own hair box, I find myself instantly expanding all my hair related philosophies and opinions.

Which brings me to Web2.0 and specifically Twitter.  When MySpace became a Web phenomena HairBoutique.com joined the movement and created a MySpace account.  When the first LinkedIn invitation hit my mailbox, I accepted and created an account.  Soon I had a Facebook account and was dabbling with other social networking experiences.  I must confess I got the concept of Web2.0 but it didn't get me.  I continued to work my system without much change in my philosophies.

Then Twitter happened.  Web2.0 suddenly became personal to me whereas I had been virtually untouched before that point.

I started caring about all kinds of new hair related topics and even more interesting, about the people following me.  I became conscious of the need to provide even better information to them about hair.  Not just the same ole, same ole news and boring blah blah blah about celebrity hairstyles or how often to wash your hair or when to get a trim.

No, I wanted to share things about hair, beauty and related topics that were still locked up in my brain after all these years.  Information that would help them think as they had helped me think on the topics they shared so freely.

My new dedication and concern with providing my Twitter followers with top knot mini-URLs tricked down to my blogging because that is the place I can really share in-depth information, even though blogs are supposed to be abbreviated. Yeah, yeah I know I write to much.  But I'm over it and I'll write what I need to say.

Twittering and blogging snapped all the lines around my thinking about hair.  Everything is changing.  I love it and I hate it at the same time because nothing is the same.  The sand is shifting under my feet.

One of my connections on Twitter is a person whose Web handle is Xx_The_Happy_Emo_xX.  I discovered Happy Emo, as I call them, because of their Twitter posts on Emo hair, which is a hot hairstyle movement often indirectly tied to musical groups.  The Happy Emo is one of those people who have helped me push my hair envelopes and change my hair ideas, in a brand new way.

I very much appreciate Happy Emo (as I call her), whose existence on the web is directly tied to her devotion to the band - My Chemical Romance.  Her site is interesting but honestly not one I would have normally sought out pre-Twitter.  However, her Tweets about hair caught my attention, especially regarding the Emo Hair movement.

After following Happy Emo my thinking on the topic of hair has blown wide open.  I find myself thinking about aspects of hairstyle creation, hair coloring and hair related topics I might not normally ever consider.  One example is Happy Emo's willingness to share some of her prized hair design goals.  Her most recent sharing offered me the concept of applying the hot new colored Leopard and Cheetah animal patterns (hot in fashions now) directly to the hair.

In the past I would have been surprised, maybe even a little freaked out, at the concept.  Now I find it exciting, thrilling, fascinating, exciting.  Would I do it?  Of course not.  Would I recommend that others do it?  Probably not.  Do I love it?  Absolutely.  It is such a fresh breath of air into the world of hair color and hair style.

Of course it might be a little tricky to create and maintain, but once accomplished it would be innovative, wildly creative and definitely a fabulous personal hair signature.  Once my mind grasped the concept I spent hours thinking about how the designs might be overlaid into the hair and what color base should be the starting point.  Should you start with a white or platinum base to make the blue or pink Leopard pop?  Or would Raven black be good with a white Leopard pattern?  Oooh.  Both would be incredible.

Once I had totally assimilated the idea of animal print hair colors, I started to think about a myriad of other related hairstyles.  My mind feasted on a dazzling array of new hair ideas and philosophies.

In the past I probably would have tried to talk the Happy Emo out of even considering the idea of applying animal prints to her hair.  Now I only want to figure out ways to help her with any questions or concerns. Even though we kive continents apart and have generations between us, I feel compelled to listen to her ideas and offer my own response.  I also appreciate her so much (thank you to Happy Emo wherever you are) for helping to kick up my dormant brain cells so I can again be excited and creative about hair.

I also have come to cherish Twitter and all my followers who help me expand my brain on a constant basis. See what I mean about blowing open my mind?

As Clint Eastwood recently told Ellen about his latest movie - Gran Torino - about a man who was set in his ways but had to adapt to his changing environment and life.  Yes, you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

My final words on this topic?  Woof woof.

My Chemical Romance.

Xx_The_Happy_Emo_xX