Good
afternoon, Thursday. If you are in New York today, you're a lucky bastard. It's
a gorgeous day here and the sun is shining in a cloudless sky and all of New
York has heaved a collective sigh of relief that the tundra vibe has left the
building. Blessings are many.
So as you know, I'm a proud Brooklyn resident. I'm constantly amazed by how beautiful the neighborhood I call home is, and how lucky I am to live there. Last night I visited a friend in Clinton Hill and saw how magic it is over there as well- shop after shop after gorgeous old home. Brooklyn is most certainly the borough. You can get the best food there, have any number of bespoke single batch cocktails there, and buy the latest Isabel Marant overpriced festival fashion. You can buy the greatest baba ganoush from Sahadi's. You can see any movie you want. You can now even go to Sephora when you run out of your Clinique eye makeup remover. You can take a barre class, a spin class, or any number of yoga classes and then reward yourself with the perfect pair of J Brands from any number of fabulous stores like Bird or Barneys. You can shop at Whole Foods, buy artisanal anything from French perfume to Hudson Valley Stilton, and get hyperlocal at any number of great butcher or wine shops or famers markets. You can buy books at charming little bookshops, and plug in as a freelancer at any number of coffee shops and never feel lonely as you pilfer the free wireless. You can take your dog to a zillion dog parks or regular parks or just take a leafy walk surrounded by stately old brownstones and have your very own Holly Golightly vibe. You can feel perfectly ok looking rumpled and wearing Birkenstocks with socks, even if you have never heard of Normcore.
You can go to a traditional Italian or
Polish bakery or French bakery while drinking bubble tea. You can enjoy the latest and greatest while steel feel firmly steeped in the patina of another era. You can marvel at the
insane amount of new construction, while getting your eyebrows threaded by a
mean Russian lady whose gruffness is more than worth it because your eyebrows
look like Linda Evangelista's when she's done. You can have a yard, a bbq, and some
decent closet space. And though it's becoming trickier to find any sort of deal
there, it's still a damn fine place to live and when you get off the subway in
Brooklyn, it's awfully nice to see the sky. Oh, and since it is such a lovely place, it was only a matter of time before many of us plebes feel like we're being priced out of our idyllic little slice of heaven- when celebrities live in your neighborhood and townhouses are going for multimillions, it's pretty safe to say that the brand of Brooklyn is keenly well received as not just as cool kid on the block, but it's quickly becoming a luxury brand as well. Who woulda thunk it? Oh, the times, they are a...well, you know.
But there's one thing you just can't do in Brooklyn, or there's one thing I just can't do in Brooklyn. You can't get your hair colored there. Strange but true. I can't speak for the whole borough, but I learned the hard way that as evolved and chic as the 718 is these days, you still can't find a decent colorist, and particularly if you want to do something a little tricky like go red. My hair color, though done by a lovely woman, has that magenta hue I hate and have always feared as a former redhead, and I have a sense that although there are a few decent salons around, they're just not quite there, though I admit I'm beyond particular (aka hair snobbish). I remember years ago my old boss, when seeing a particular shade of red gone wrong on my head, remarked that my hair color "does not exist in nature" and is therefore, terrible. I fully agree- unless of course you are in a band, dating someone in a band, or under 28. But back to the problem at hand- you may now be able to eat sushi in the BK (believe me, there was a time when you would not do that, and it wasn't that long ago), but you can't get your hair colored there. Are you there Bumble and Bumble? It's me, Sheri. I'll need about two and a half hours of your time this weekend...
Lesson learned friends, lesson learned. Because although Brooklyn is the epicenter of everything these days, it's not the place to get your color done. Just wait a couple more years though- I'm willing to stick it out. Shocking that the big salons have not come to our nabe yet. I’m extending an invite- I'd much prefer Bumble and Bumble or any of the big Manhattan salons to open up in downtown Brooklyn than J. Crew come to the neighborhood, but that's just me. I've got my priorities well in order. In the mean time, see you at 10:45 am on Saturday, Manhattan. Please fix me- I would dye for you (and commute into Manhattan on my sacred weekend). Living in Brooklyn- still such a sacrifice...feel free to prove me wrong, ps. I'm sticking to Manhattan wins when it comes to great hair.
Oh, and for those of you wondering if I get my hair cut in Brooklyn, the answer is yes.
My dear friend Siobhan cuts my mop right in my dining room, though naturally, I
met her many years ago at a salon. In Manhattan.
Cause that's what's up this wearing a hat till Saturday kind of Thursday in the well tressed 212. Yours, in color correction. XO