Desirable hair: Streetcar Named Desire

These are the hairstyles that I did for the run of Streetcar Named Desire, done by University Theater at University of Wisconsin Madison. The actresses that I worked with were delightful and the entire run was very enjoyable. I encountered a few challenges with this show. First, how to do three 1940′s hairstyles on a time crunch.

Second, working with the gorgeous and talented Leia Espericueta, who has a massive deluge of chestnut corkscrew curls halfway down her back. Her hair is a phenomenon, it weighs about 20 pounds and requires no more than one washing per week. Working with Leia is a dream. Each week, she washed her hair at the theater and we went about blow drying and straightening for about 2 hours. It took 2 hours with two people working on it simultaneously! The straightened hair gathered into a ponytail about as thick as my wrist. I don’t know how many times I can say that Leia Espericueta has magical, rare and beautiful hair. Like a unicorn but prettier. But it’s still a challenge. A beautiful, beautiful challenge.

Third: Fingerwaves!!! Oh my god they haunt me. When I close my eyes, while I’m falling asleep, they’re there staring me in the face with my inadequacy. I have panic attacks about fingerwaves. They’re so beautiful, so difficult. I still don’t do them quite right. I’ve never been taught the proper way to do them, so it took me about 3 months to learn. Plus, in order to do proper fingerwaves, one must have the hair soaking wet, then sit under the dryer for a while. It takes hours. I had 15 minutes and no margin for error. I worked it out though. After three weeks of doing it every night, it almost got easier. Almost.

And that’s about it. Everyone else did their own hair, thank god.