Despite working in beauty, I am slightly haircut-averse. I may still be hanging on to the trauma of accidentally getting when I was 14, and I've just generally gotten too many bad haircuts over the years when all I wanted was a trim. All that is to say: if I'm going to get a cut, it needs to be worth it.
For the last few months, I've been letting my hair grow out as much as it could, without any layers or face-framing pieces. I just wanted to let it do its thing. After a while, though, it was starting to look lifeless; no matter how I styled it, it read as flat and boring.
I came to the conclusion that having it all one layer wasn't doing anything for my fine hair. So I decided to brave the salon chair and try out the latest : the . I made my way to Benjamin Salon for an appointment with its titular owner, .
Keep reading for his take on the mermaid cut and to see how it transformed my lifeless hair into a 'do worthy of Ariel herself. is a celebrity hairstylist and owner of Benjamin Salon in Los Angeles. The mermaid haircut is a version of , with an emphasis on creating lots of movement through the hair.
"The goal of the mermaid cut is to maximize flow," says Mohapi. "You want it to feel full and maintain volume but you want to move and hold a feeling of seamlessness as it does so. Just like the waves of the ocean, this is a style that should never be static.
It should always be in motion, swelling and crashing with every step." The mermaid cut differs from something like the .