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Getting Styled In Crete

Heraklion

If I’m perfectly honest, it wasn’t the hairdresser’s fault. I think it’s safe to say, Heraklion wasn’t the European hot spot for hair trends in the summer of 2006. Nevertheless, I was there, and I needed a hair cut. My salty beach days had left me with a dry and tangled mess.

It was a tiny salon with no other customers and a faint scent of cigarettes. In any case, not much can go wrong, I thought, looking around with my eyebrows ever so slightly raised. I have droopy hair and I’m stuck in a pony tail routine. Let the hairdresser do things her way.

After a while of whisking away with her scissors, the hairdresser asked me if I also wanted her to style me. Sure, why not. She started spraying products from different cans liberally, aiming at the general direction of my head. As a thick cloud of hair styling products emerged, she finally asked me to close my eyes.

The spraying noises went on for some time until I was allowed to open my eyes. And voilà!

I looked in the mirror and was shocked to see enormous hair looking back at me. How did that happen?! I could enter a Tina Turner look-alike contest with this hairstyle!

I still to this day have never seen my hair with volume like that. For someone who complains about her fine hair, it was a hard moment when I had to admit that huge volume in fact didn’t suit me at all.

After I left the salon and turned the corner, I discreetly put my hair back in a pony tail.

Heraklion (aka Iraklion)

31 replies on “Getting Styled In Crete”

Hihih! I admit first looking to the end of the post to see if there was a photo, at least of the hair without the face. 😉 This is where you and me differ: after my month on Crete I was returning home with my hair seconds before turning into dreadlocks. I was proud of that state. To me it said good living. 🙂 The sun, the salt, the heat… I think I was also a bit pleased with the shock I could read in people’s eyes at seeing me like that. I was always happy to defy expectations. Oh well… maybe you’ll add a photo next time. 😉

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I was alone so no photo evidence – this was before selfies became something that any self-respecting person would admit doing. I do love salt in my hair, m hair also gets naturally blonde in the sun which I suppose isn’t healthy but I love it! I have rasta style little knots in my hair all the time 😄 I only went to get it chopped off when it was absolutely out of hand! 😋

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Been there! A ponytail is my default hairstyle, but every once in a while, I let the hairdresser go whole hog and then I walk out feeling like I’m on some 80s TV show. I’m usually in the car a few minutes later, gathering up the pouffy strands into a hair tie! I laughed at your description of the products spraying everywhere! 🙂

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Hahah! 😂 So glad (sorry?) you can relate! Come to think of it, this type of thing happens to me at every hairdresser’s I go to, just minus the volume. Usually for some reason they like to bend the tips of my hair a bit inward, not Hollywood style luscious locks but rather like a child’s hairdo, not a good look either!

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I used to like a ponytail after styling because it made the ponytail look better – or could – ya know? Like not so tight to the head and just better –
And I like your use of descriptive words for giving us setting and feeling – it overdone and so perfect to get needed smells (cos it does matter to have that faint scent of cig smoke – I got into an elevator today and it had residual 2nd hand smoke and well – sometimes it just stsbds out)
Anyhow – also laughing at the product use – I thought you were going to say u had an enormous bill cos sometimes that Happens
Want styling too?
Sure.
Then the bill
Comes with extra fifty bucks

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I am glad that did not happen.

and a long time ago – back in 1994 – I was working a winter at a salon – one my sister owns – and never my area of specialty but making some moola – mostly I ran the desk and checked people out.
well I forgot to charge someone for stuff – about a 40 dollar loss.
then later that day – everyone was slammed (holidays) and other desk help arrived and I was invited to wear a lab coat (smock jacket) to help in back.
long story short – you need a license and experience to do most things with clients – but someone wanted a styling done and she said she knew it was last minute or something like that – and nobody wanted to squeeze her in cos they were backed up or it was not worth the pennies (not like a color job) – so I was standing there are offered to do it – the lady lit up – I warned her of my “I am in college and this is not my speciality area -etc.” – she just wanted her hair done!
so I did it and omg – it was fun (but not something I was ever called to do) and at the register – it turned out that I made the salon the 40 bucks I lost – yeah baby!

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yes – she loved it – and I took so long that I think the extra pampering was part of it… (and seriously – hair is not my thing – but most of us can use a curling iron and I think I had someone come over and help me with the blow dry – it’s a bit of a fuzzy memory) but it was so fun.
and maybe the other conditions were a priming effect to make her like it more.
she was almost turned away.
she just wanted her hair done – and did not want to have to do it herself.
it was a beautiful saln with nice products and ambience was there
I was professional and wearing that coat – and pampered her.
—
and in your case – you just wanted a refreshed from the salty build up – eh?

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well let me note that I “made the salon 40 dollars” that was proft – or what a stylist would have taken home – so i think her bill was double that – again a little fuzzy – but I just recall having a bounce in my step because the amount was so close to what I forgot to charge.
woo hoo
and it was also just fun.
and thanks for your fun flashback post – enjoyed this so much

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Hahaha 😂 As someone who also has fine hair, I can imagine the disappointment when you finally got some volume and it didn’t look good… At the beginning of the story when I read “not much can go wrong”, I thought “oh no, what happened?”. Good story telling. 👍🏻

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That’s a funny story! 😀 Beach and the sea absolutely damage my hair too. I can’t imagine how living for months at an island would do to the hair. I was hoping for a photo but then I read your reply to the first comment hehe. I just love it when some people’s hair turn blonder in the sun, although mine is completely dark so there’s no difference heheh.

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I made this same mistake once in one of the best hairdresser’s salons in Athens. Styled = puffy hair that DOES NOT MOVE. People here tend to go to the hairdresser just before events – weddings, christenings, major parties, etc. In other words, they don’t go just to have a hair cut, but to make sure their hair is just right for that event. Next time you go to a Greek hairdresser, get a manicure. They do this superbly. Just don’t ask for nail extensions or you might end up with studded and jewelled talons in garish colours.

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Hehehee 😂 I could do with a manicure right now! Will try to remember for next time! Isn’t it risky though getting styled with THAT MUCH hair spray just before a major event? You can’t ponytail your way through a wedding..! 😋

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