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She Talks Asia x Dove — My Hair My Say

She Talks Asia x Dove

Click on each photo to know more about the featured women.

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There was no devastating heartbreak, no traumatic experience to speak of. Over 12 years ago, former magazine editor Jae Pickrell decided to chop her long hair off. “I just wanted something different, I wanted to try something new. I have never been particularly attached to my long hair, so it wasn’t such a big deal for me to try a different hairstyle.”
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@jaepickrell shares that she wasn’t really happy with the first bob she got, so she just kept on experimenting with different styles, many different hair stylists, and her hair got shorter and shorter to become the pixie cut she has been sporting for almost a decade now.
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“People have a lot of misconceptions about short hair—some think it’s wash and wear, like you can get up in the morning and just go about your business. But that’s not the case for me. When I wake up, tufts of hair are standing up, like alfalfa sprouts! I have to shower, then fix my hair, use matte wax, a texturizing spray, then hair spray! If you’re low maintenance or tamad, the pixie is not the best haircut to have. It’s not only the day to day styling, it’s also getting it cut like every 2 to 3 weeks because if it grows even just 2 millimeters, it looks a bit off.”
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But despite it being high maintenance, Jae says she has embraced the pixie cut and it has become part of who she is—her signature look that goes with the hashtag #earringslongerthanmyhairforever. “It’s very important to empower yourself with the way that you look. I’m happy to have found something that works really well for me, to the point that I can actually imagine myself having this same haircut even in my twilight years!” ⚡⚡⚡
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#MyHairMySay
#DovePH

“I used to straighten my hair because I thought that’s how women should look,” says Kate Alvarez, a lifestyle journalist. “We grew up seeing that look. That long, straight, black, silky hair—TV commercial hair!” It was @replikate’s desire to fit in high school that prompted her and her mom to look up different options for straightening her hair; and back then, she didn’t have a lot of options and these services were extremely pricey. She was 15 years old.
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“I will never forget the day I walked into the classroom with my straight hair, literally like a broom. I was running late, and the whole class erupted into laughter. I was so embarrassed! I hid my face, I felt like such a loser,” she recalls.
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In college, she found better ways to have her hair straightened and continued to wear it that way. “I was walking in the mall when I was discovered by an agent for commercials, so I thought, ‘Hey, this is really how I should look!’” After several casting heartbreaks, Kate took a break and from regularly spending to straighten her hair, and decided to grow her natural curls out. Shortly after, she worked at a publication where she met fashion and beauty editors who referred her to a hairstylist who works well with curly hair. “Other parlor-istas would look at me and say, ‘Eto na naman, kulot na naman,’ ['Here we go again, another curly-haired girl,'] while nudging each other. But this time, he told me, ‘We’ll work with your curly hair!’ I was like, ‘Really?! You’re the first ever stylist to tell me we can work with this,’” Kate recalls, touching her curls. They taught her the “twisting method” to bring out her real curls. "I felt like, “That was there? Since childhood? It’s just been hiding?!” Kate went back to casting calls and landed her first commercial in all her curly-haired glory. Then, the jobs kept coming.
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Kate has come to embrace and know her hair so well, that for this particular photo you see, she actually insisted on doing her own hair. Curl power, for real.
#MyHairMySay

One wouldn’t equate having bright, candy-colored hair to being a mom of 2, but for Grace Ong Donato, her vibrant hair color is part of who she is. “Of course, people would stare [at my hair] in the mall, but no one has ever come up to me to say anything negative. It’s more of, ‘Hey, your hair is so much fun!’” @gracedonuts shares.
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What started as cellophane treatments to have a tinge of color in her hair during her high school years turned into full on blonde in college, and eventually the full spectrum from mint green to blue green, violet to bright pink. “One time, it was the other way around. I dyed my hair black, and everyone got mad and told me, ‘Why did you do that?! That is so not you,” Grace recalls. What she thought would be an exciting change turned out to be the opposite, and her black hair lasted no more than a week. “It’s not me! It’s not bagay, [It doesn’t suit me,]” she exclaimed.
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When asked what she would tell other women who want to color their hair but are a bit hesitant, Grace said: “Being able to express yourself is so much better than hiding who you really are, just because you’re so scared of what other people might think. It doesn’t make you any less of a person whether you have black hair or green hair, so just enjoy every minute of it!” 👄⚡
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#MyHairMySay
#DovePH

What is one hairstyle you’ve been wanting to try, but you haven’t yet? For teacher by day, musician and cosplayer by night Dani Mendoza aka @manicpixiedani, that is blonde, multi-colored, undercut hair, and she just went for it. ⚡
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“I was always fascinated with unique looks from anime and video games, which is why I was drawn to cosplay. When I got to college, I was allowed to experiment with my real hair. I was able to do all the colors of the rainbow, one at a time, and all at once,” Dani shares.
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The more Dani experimented with her hair, the more she became unafraid. She maintains an undercut, and would even shave shapes like triangles onto the side of her head. “If the color is gonna fade, no problem, because I can always re-color and try something new again,” she says.
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Despite the initial shock of her parents when they first saw her bleached blonde hair, through time, they did learn to accept and support Dani’s self-expression through her hair. It also helped her deal with a rather difficult time in her life. “It allowed me to express myself and escape from the repression I felt that came with depression. I thought, if I felt trapped in a certain situation, at least there’s one thing I can change, one thing I have control over—my hair. It's a very empowering experience.”
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#MyHairMySay
#DovePH

Have you been wanting to sport really short hair but aren’t sure you have the guts to do it yet? Read on:
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“I was getting sick of it, I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I knew I wanted a change,” recalls @hannah_olives. From having hair up to her waist, Hannah vividly remembers everyone in the salon crowding around her ponytail as the hairstylist snipped the whole chunk off. There was an audible gasp in the room. “Walang hesitation! Walang pagsisisi! [No hesitation! No regrets!]”
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As the lead vocalist for Session Road, Hannah recalls the first gig she did right after her dramatic hair change around a decade ago. “People thought the vocalist of my band had been replaced! They asked me, ‘Are you the one from before?’ And I realized, whoa, it was that much of a change!” At that time, most women in the music and entertainment industry had long hair. But the short new look gave Hannah a renewed confidence. “It made me feel good! I was able to show a different side of me.”
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“This side shave,” she points to the side of her head, “I just got this last week! I’ve been toying with the idea for awhile and I just finally did it. I love it!” The crossfit athlete and activewear entrepreneur has embraced her short hair so much, that it actually has gotten shorter and shorter through the years. Hannah ends by saying, “People love long, straight, black hair. So of course when you cut it, they’re like, ‘Why?’ Then I’d say, ‘Why not?’”
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#MyHairMySay
#DovePH

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