British fashion blogger Susie Bubble was doing her signature topknot years before the rest of us. She shared her personal hairstory below.
At 14, I sheared off most of my hair as the result of a heat wave; more recently, to avoid plucking my brows, I cut bangs (and then managed to train my boyfriend to trim them at home for me). I now wear my hair long to lessen the frequency of haircuts (sometimes I go for six months without one, just cleaning up my own split ends). Four or five years ago, on a particularly cold trip to Stockholm, I wanted to wear a huge scarf. So I tied my hair up in a high ponytail—tipping it all forward, then twisting it back onto itself to avoid having it catch in the fabric. Lo and behold, a bulbous formation sat atop my head. It wasn’t conscious or preconceived. I didn’t even know what it was called. Was it a bun? Or better yet, a chignon? (A chignon seemed fitting for a proper grown-up.) Somehow, in Stockholm it felt appropriate; local girls had been sporting knots long before mine came to be. When I got back home to London, my mum and dad wondered if it was an homage to Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. If only! These days my topknot has become a highly functional part of my look. On windy or rainy days, it prevents eternal entanglement: My hair isn’t just long but thick—and not in a luscious way; when I don’t have time to wash it, the style hides a multitude of sins. And it takes precisely three minutes to do. The knot also plays a role in what I wear: I have a penchant for crazy mixes of anything and everything; getting all that hair up means less risk of its clashing with a lurid floral print or a neon necklace. The ’do comes with limitations, though. It’s kept me from getting a drastic cut. Hats are problematic (I own a lot of visors!). And when my hair is down, people seem slightly disappointed. Ultimately, my accidental hairstyle comes with preconceptions of “quirkiness” and “individuality”—things that, of course, I don’t object to. But depending on a ball of hair to give you confidence or pizzazz feels a little ridiculous, and I also love wearing my hair straight. Like my outfits, my hair is attuned to my mood. I’m just lucky that most days, my mood is very “blogger with a topknot.”
Susie Lau (a.k.a Susie Bubble) is the founder of stylebubble.co.uk