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Steps to the perfect cut  My mother went to Vidal Sassoon in 1964 for an avant-garde, asymmetrical hairdo that made her head look like a modernist collage. The very next morning, the Mod mop had morphed into two great clumps on either side of her ears that looked like mating hedgehogs.
To solve the problem, my dad gave her a crew cut. In spiky despair, she declared war on all hairdressers and developed a manifesto: "Hair is not bonsai; it cannot be trained into submission. No matter what THEY (hair dressers are always THEY to Mom) attempt to do to you avoid any style that involves more than five minutes of blow-drying. Any style!"
Your own tolerance for styling and stylists may be greater, but getting a great haircut a still requires a strategy. Here are seven rules to guide you.
Follow your face
The shape of your face dictates the shape of your hair and the rules are fairly simple. Heart-shaped faces with low hairlines suit wavy '40s styles: curls, side parts, center parts and bobs. Long faces with high cheekbones look better with hair that doesn't smother the face or hang in miserable hanks either side of the ears. Try a bedroom-hair bob like Meg Ryan's, go for fuller hair at the crown and see if bangs help proportion your features.
Pixie-chinned girls with large or wide-set eyes look best with really short Head-to-toe style hair. The prettier the face, the shorter hair can go. The same rule applies to older faces with strong features and to those with silver locks. Grey hair looks marvelous cropped short. If you look fantastic with your hair up, chances are you'll look fantastic with it short.
The best short hair leaves you something to play with--some wispy bangs, some layers.
Silence your stylist
Only you really know your hair. You know if it falls flat on the crown, curls up in a big cowlick or refuses to form perfect Marcia Brady flicks, so let your stylist know. Hair miracles usually involve lots of time and product. If you lack both, going with the natural fall, weight, wave and kink of your hair makes sense. The first step to getting a better haircut is to slow the whole process down. Take time to choose a salon whose employees reflect your own style, take clippings of your favorite looks with you and, above all, don't be intimidated by bright light, pounding music and big mirrors.
Too often the session before the haircut is a brief rejection of all that went before. Whoever cut your hair last was a monster, and whatever you have now is deemed old hat. Stop right there. Sit up straight and tell the stylist what you love about your hair and what you want to encourage. Demand a cut that suits the "grain" of your real hair and flatters your face. Demand a cut that can withstand wind and rain. And God bless the stylist who will actually listen.
Learn from the stars
Long, short, flicked or fluffy, Michelle Pfeiffer's hair has sported a center part since 1975--a simple little trick that enhances her doll-like features with symmetry. Drew Barrymore usually flatters her moon face with shorter hair. Gwyneth matches her hair to her body: long and straight. Are these women trying to tell you something? Yes. Why demolish when you can renovate? Find the length and shape you love and work around it. Occasional tweaking and even a radical change of color needn't alter the style you love.
Hair is not a collector's item
Don't hang onto long hair just because you took two decades to grow it. This morbid Victorian habit might be holding you back from a style that really suits you. To imagine your hair shorter, visit a high quality wig shop or simply wear your hair up for a week. Count the compliments and then act. Keep the hair you 'sacrifice' in a long braid tied with a ribbon for your grandchildren or sell it and buy a red dress.
Experiment in summer
If you want to try layers, feathered bangs, shorter hair or a perm, do it in the summer months. This is the time when hair grows fastest and sporty shake-it-and-run styles suit high humidity and constant showering. Low maintenance hairstyles are also rejuvenating. Lock your blow-dryer away until October and your hair will thank you for it.
Look before you lop
Some say cut your hair on the new moon. That's very poetic but forget it if you have PMS. Timing is everything with matters of beauty. If you have broken up with your boyfriend, gotten pregnant or just been fired, wait a week before you do something weird and reactive to your hair. The urge to henna after a bad breakup is predictable. Red is the color of anger and revenge. The urge to go short for looming motherhood is equally predictable: babies love to tug long hair. But hold your horses. A major life change and bad hair can lead to psychic overload.
Don't try this at home
Occasional Vincent van Gogh moments may result in "artistic" urges involving a Daisy shaver and your bangs. I completely understand this. Whenever I see Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday" I reach for my nail scissors and start hacking. A few stray locks trimmed at home is OK. But cut off more than a few inches and you are going to need outside help.
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