How to feel like a local maven...

Hiya, Tuesday. It's back to school/work/life today for many of us, so get some.

If you read this blog on the regs, you know I just spent a week in Detroit on production. It's a bad ass town full of broken hearts and beauty and coolness. I loved it, and was grateful to have shot some beautiful photos all over the city and outskirts.

Whenever I visit cities I have never been and where I will rest my head for more than a few hours, I like to orientate myself and pretend I'm living there, just so I can see how it feels. Also because I like to pretend I am living in a hotel, a fantasy of mine since I was wee (not in an Eloise way, more in a fallen heiress on the lam with a dark past kind of way). Hotels are so glamorous, when they are glamorous, that is.

Anyway, I often visit the local gyms, spin studios, yoga classes of places I go because I like to feel local, I like to see what is routine to me at home feels like when I'm not. And it's a great way to get a true sense of a place by scoping out its dwellers. One of my favorite things to do is get my nails or hair done in another town. Nothing tricky, just a blow out and a chance to always feel at home.

What do I mean by that? I mean that beauty salons, if you are a woman, have a certain familiarity, no matter where they are. I suppose barber shops are the same for dudes, but beauty shops are more my thing and I love checking them out and seeing how locals pamper themselves. There's something so comforting to me about going to a hair salon or manicurist- it's altogether familiar, you know you're amongst friends, and after a week of shooting nothing but butch American cars with a bunch of butch dudes, it's nice to squeeze in some pampering and get a pretty pink manicure (Essie is pretty much a staple, thank the Lord).

For instance, my manicurist was Albanian, her husband, an artist who paints in their basement, she was in the film industry back home but could not find work in the states so does nails. She believes that all people should do something creative, she's dying to go to New York, and she thinks it's cool that Beyonce is pregnant. See how wonderful that conversation was? This is what goes on in the salon. Female bonding and such, sure, but I'm more interested in sharing stories with strangers, especially strangers that want to make me look pretty.

Now my hair stylist was a cool rock and roll chick with a small dog and a burning interest to travel. She had never been on a plane and hoped to visit France, and maybe California. She does not like Vanessa Hudgens with short hair (nor do I). She gave me a lovely little blow dry and I was on my way, happy with the conversation and comfort that a little bit of beauty can bring.

Ladies, if you're ever feeling lonely in a town you don't know, or if you simply want to feel more local than tourist, get thee to the salon. It's a sure way to feel connected, it's inevitably comforting, and you get to see the style of a crowd you may not be used to, which is also super fun (chicks in my fancy Detroit hotel nabe were all about straight blowouts, shaggy bobs, and layers). It's nice to know in this uncertain time in our uncertain world, there's a place that always feels like home, no matter what. Cause that's what's up this home is where the hair is kind of Tuesday in the MIA. Be careful out there this week. XO