We Have a Winner!

Thanks to all of you who participated in our contest, and to those of you who helped pick our winner!

Drumroll please...

...congratulations, Roz! You are our winner! Your story was short and sweet, evocative enough to earn you a whopping 43% of the vote. Please send your address to us at bloggingsheargenius@gmail.com and we'll send your fabulous Shear Genius prize right to you!

"It was the 1960s and all the girlfriends of the Beatles along with Twiggy and all the models in all the magazines had straight hair. My cousin, Evelyn, to whom I looked up and envied, had thick STRAIGHT hair. I had very thick, very curly, very frizzy hair. I went to a hair salon for the OPPOSITE treatment: to get my hair straightened. In those days hair straightening solution contained depilatory. "Need I say more?"

Horrible Hair Story Contest

Ok - we couldn't pick just three entries in our Horrible Hair Story contest, so we chose four...and now it's your turn to vote for your favorite.

Click here for story #1.
Click here for story #2.
Click here for story #3.
Click here for story #4.

After you've read the stories, cast your vote! The winner will receive a grab bag of Shear Genius goodies including a magazine signed by the stylists and a T-shirt from Oshun!

poll by twiigs.com

Horrible Hair Story

Here's an entry from our Horrible Hair Story Contest:

"It was the 1960s and all the girlfriends of the Beatles along with Twiggy and all the models in all the magazines had straight hair. My cousin, Evelyn, to whom I looked up and envied, had thick STRAIGHT hair. I had very thick, very curly, very frizzy hair. I went to a hair salon for the OPPOSITE treatment: to get my hair straightened. In those days hair straightening solution contained depilatory.

"Need I say more?"

We've extended the deadline for our contest to Tuesday, August 26th at noon Eastern so you still have a chance to get your story in and win a great prize!

Contest Reminder!

You still have time to enter our Horrible Hair story contest. Here's one from our own Laura K to inspire you.

My First Perm

About twenty years ago I was a young mom in a neighborhood of young moms and one of my friends, Nancy, had beautiful long shiny thick dark brown hair. I had long brown hair too, but mine was rather ordinary.

One day I arrived at her door with my kids in tow for a play date and Nancy's hair looked more gorgeous than usual. She told me that she had gotten a "Spiral Perm" from "Lori" at the neighborhood salon.

I had never in my life had a perm, or color or any sort of treatment on my hair. I had virgin hair. But I wanted it to look like Nancy's so I made the appointment with Lori.

Cue music of doom.

The first thing I learned was that even though the salon rate for a perm was $45 - for me (because of the length) - I would pay not double... but TRIPLE the stated price. That was a lot of money but I wanted that luxurious curly sexy hair....

So I agreed and Lori began to set my hair in those plastic perm rollers. It took a LOT of rollers. She was borrowing them from other stylists. When she finished rolling everything, my head was gigantic and the rollers were heavy. She squirted on more of the smelly solution and put a plastic cap over the whole thing, but it wouldn't fit over all of the rollers. I'll pause while you try to imagine this. Some of them stuck out around the edges of the cap.

Then she put me underneath a lamp or a heater or something (can't exactly remember) and I waited...expecting a miracle.

After some time, she came over to "check on me" and when she went to unroll one of the curlers, it came off in her hand. WITH THE HAIR still in it....This happened to be right in the front of my forehead a little off-center.

I'm thinking "this probably isn't supposed to happen."

She removed the cap and squirted on something called "neutralizer" while calling on her fellow stylists to assist...very casually, as if perhaps she is overbooked and just trying to finish more quickly. They turn me away from the mirror and there are about four stylists, squirting and unrolling the curlers telling me to "close my eyes" because the solution might sting. Someone asked my to hold a towel over my face.... Very sneaky...

But this did not prevent me from seeing several of the rollers full of hair - broken off at the roots - in the basket with the rest.

So, Lori is still trying to behave as if nothing is wrong and I am still expecting to see these gorgeous long spiral curls.

She fluffs and dries and puffs and styles and you know, my hair was thick enough that the missing hanks of hair were not obvious... at first. She was very clever with the styling.

I went home with lovely long curls. No apologies. No one admitting that anything had gone wrong.

I was young and shy and I had no real salon experience. As a girl, my mom usually trimmed my hair I was completely intimidated. I never said a word.

Of course as my hair grew out it was obvious that something was wrong. I had about a two-inch wide section of hair over my left eye that sort of looked like a child's scissor experiment. It took about a year for it to grow out long enough to tuck behind my ear. I also had a cowlick that popped up if I parted my hair a certain way. Every once in a while I will see a photo of myself from that time and see the stupid reminder of my vanity.

It was a very long time before I went to a hair salon again.

Contest!

Have you had a truly horrible hair experience? A cut or color that made you want to cry? One that can only be described as "shear madness?" Tell us your tale of woe, or submit a photo of your disastrous 'do, and you can win a grab bag of Shear Genius goodies including a magazine signed by the stylists and a T-shirt from Oshun!

Please send your entries to us via e-mail only by no later than Tuesday, August 19th. We'll choose our three favorites and post them here; you'll vote to decide the winner.

Thanks Trish for this great prize package!

BSG Poetry Contest Winner!

Back in June, after episode 1, we announced a poetry contest in honor of the poetical Oshun here on Blogging Shear Genius. And we finally have chosen a winner!

Congrats, Colin! Please send us your contact info because there's a prize waiting for you!

The oshun was deep,
and that's how I was in
to the episode that
placed him in the bin

Sally was tough
really, what're you gonna do?
inspired by that black blob
of cartoon hair do'

But still, it runs dry
both inspiration and oshun
Gone from his work...
maybe Daniel stole that 'potion'

The judges all balked
the model felt pressed
as she attended that walk
to pass Oshun's test

But pass, he did not
and was sent promptly home
to play with and style
his sole garden gnome.

For who now, after all
would let that salt water treat
their head or their hair,
once he was beat...

"Not I," said his gnome,
and everyone other
"Not I," said we all
and the salty one's mother

So now, the Oshun waves sad
and salty with tears
Having lost the gratest opportunity
of all of his years

The Oshun was deep...
but now it runs shallow
exiled from hair gods,
and their halls, all hallow.

Poetry Contest

Because Oshun was so fond of rhyme, I was inspired to write a little something for him. And if you are so inclined, we invite you to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and compose a rhyme in honor of the poetical stylist. Send your poetry to BSG and we'll post 'em here! We'll choose the best and the winner will get a Blogging Shear Genius t-shirt!

The rules: ahh...no profanity! That's about it! You can submit any sort of poem you'd like: limerick; freeform; haiku; sonnet. Have fun!

Ode to an Oshun

The man, a fan
of rhyming words
with his own name.
Emmy nominated
for hair (but not Hair).
Showed us what he can do
with scissors.
Can he cut
or will he
be cut?

Blindfold disaster
comes in last place.
Not deterred,
he tries again
with Lucy
who calls him a blockhead.

So long Oshun
man with the motion and
the potion
etc.
That final cut was indeed
your last.

--theminx