From the Archives: First Impressions

Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay

From the Archives is a series where I revisit old posts and essays from my writing archives. I'm also cleaning up old files. Some posts are so outdated they are easily discarded. Some pieces still have relevance, while others are just fun to look back on. I'm hoping this turns out to be an entertaining series - a monthly segment here on the blog.

Here is one short post I wrote back in 2012 on a blog called Perfectly Pink. 

First Impressions

“Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not

a woman really knows herself.”

Hubert De Givenchy, Vogue (July 1985)

Spring is in the air. You’ve just had a new makeover and your face looks fab. Maybe you’ve added a couple pieces to your wardrobe. And now your hair style needs a serious update. Brenda Kinsel, author of several books including 40 over 40: 40 Things Every Woman Over 40 Needs to Know About Getting Dressed, (1999) shared this interesting hair tip:

“Go to a new hair designer looking your best self. Introduce yourself to the hairdresser fully clothed the first time, before they get you into a smock. Let the hairdresser see who you are. Here’s a place where first impressions will really help ensure that you get the cut that works with your lifestyle and taste.”

That was an aha moment for me (for I was all too familiar with leaving hair salons disappointed). Years earlier, not related to my hair, as a young woman I came to the city to find a job. It was the late 1970s, and I decided to use a temp agency, hoping this would get my foot in the door to a nice place in the downtown area. I didn’t think to dress up for this initial interview with the agency—after all it wasn’t a potential employer who'd be seeing me. But I soon began to wonder why the temp jobs I kept getting were never in those plushy downtown offices, but in more casual, industrial kind of places. It wasn’t until much later that it finally dawned on me: the agency's first impression of me was that I was a casual 'pants' kind of girl, and so the jobs they sent me to were to the more casual kind of sites. (After that, I did my best to look the part whenever I went for an interview. And things improved, I'm happy to report.)

It’s true, first impressions matter...at job interviews, and now we learn even at hair salons. If you haven’t been getting the style you want, maybe you’re giving them the wrong impression of who you are in ‘real’ life.

I never really thought about what I wore or how my hair looked when I arrived at a salon; after all, they were going to wash my hair, cut it, and style it all anyway. But if they only see me in a way that doesn't reflect my most authentic self, in my relaxed 'at home' stance rather than in my 'how I want to present myself to the world', no wonder a person can walk away disappointed.

That first impression turns out to be the unconscious standard people will refer to forever after. So it's something to keep in mind for all our first encounters... not just in hair salons.

Here’s to living your life more beautifully... more truly you everywhere you go!

❦

Wishing you a beautiful weekend,

Brenda

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I post on Fridays