From awkward bowl cuts to too-short pixies, Hannia Hafeez weathered her fair share of bad hairstyles as a kid. She recalls being in the car with her uncle when he was pulled over by a police officer, who mistook her for a young boy due to her close-cropped haircut. Needless to say, Hafeez is pretty attached to her length as an adult, but even the healthiest hair could use some help from time to time.
To breathe some much-needed life into her style with a fresh cut and colour, Hafeez visited Kei Hirata, owner and creative director of Three Degrees Salon in New York City, for our latest episode of Hair Me Out. Hirata started by slicing off four inches of Hafeez's hair, which might seem dramatic, but Hafeez welcomed the change. "What I'm most excited for is just feeling lighter, not dragging around what right now feels like a horse's tail," she said.
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Next, Hirata teased Hafeez's hair to help blend bleach into her natural hair colour for seamless highlights, and followed up with a full haircut to add more layers to the front of her hair. A single process dye added dimension and colour to her highlights, and to bring the transformation together, Hirata trimmed Hafeez's bangs and curled her hair with a curling iron.
When Hirata spins Hafeez around to see her transformation, her excitement and surprise is contagious. "This is perfect. It gives me the layers and the framing of the face that I wanted," she said. "I feel very glam, and I feel good and confident. This is so much better than what I thought it could have been."
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