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What determines a good haircut is a question that will produce as many answers as there are stars in the sky. A "good haircut" is all about the person who wants it. Let's face it; when most of us go to the hairdresser's or beauty salon, we have hopes in our hearts and faith in the expert haircutter. Sadly, past experiences have left me very much poorer, while considering the possibility of wearing a woolly ski-hat for quite some time to come.

I have paid $150 for a cut, style and coloring that left me with two dangly bits of hair around my chin, rather like a spaniel's ears, and everywhere else on my head, all flat and poker straight. Despite constantly asking the stylist to scrunch dry the hair to its natural curl, to create a graduated bob, she went her own sweet way and I looked like a medieval knight, minus the armour.

On that occasion, I rushed home in shock, washed, moussed, and finger-dried the awful hair, and still looked extremely silly. This was not a fantasy or a paranoid response; trusted friends were appalled by my appearance. Most definitely, I had not had a good haircut. Gathering up my courage, I went back with a photo of me with the hairstyle I had asked for and requested them to put it right.

With much hemming and hawing, muttering about "break-down in communication," they did. I sat there, seething with shame and anger in equal measure while the hair was re-styled to my original request. A bit shorter than I wanted, but acceptable. Incidentally, the owner of the salon told me that curly hair can sometimes just go straight for no reason! Gimme a break! I did not come floating up the river on the nearest bubble.

What determines a good haircut may be a shaggy Victoria Beckham style (her latest 'look'), or those lustrous tresses Andi McDowell waves around on TV, while telling us all we're worth it. It depends entirely on the wants,lifestyle, personality, hair type, face shape, age, oh, and so much more, of the person seeking that Holy Grail - a good haircut.

For example, a busy mom with three children and two jobs may want something short, smart and easy to handle, a kind of wash 'n go style. An older lady might like a frosted, upswept short style or a smooth, shoulder length bob. Personally, I want something that lets the natural curl in my hair give it body, something that has some connection with modernity, and can be dried naturally with a bit of finger ruffling to put it in shape.

That, for me determines a good haircut; one that suits my

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