Former “Baywatch” beach babe Pamela Anderson, 46, surprised everyone last week by chopping off her trademark long locks and debuting a new short, platinum cut. The verdict? Stunning. And more women should try it, says Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles, a Brit who sports a chic blond pixie look herself. She spoke with Mackenzie Dawson about why she’s a huge fan of the look.
I love Pam Anderson’s new do. It oozes confidence. She must have gotten it cut like this because short hair is more practical for the Marathon [Anderson competed in the NYC race, her jaunty cut embellished with a backwards baseball cap; her time was 5 hours, 41 minutes]. The new style makes her look more serious, less girlish, more womanly. I’m happy to see someone else join the platinum pixie club — I just hope no one expects me to start running marathons now.
I used to have long, wavy strawberry blonde hair, masses of it. When I was working at the Daily Telegraph [in London], the editor-in-chief called me into his office one day and demanded that I get my hair cut.
“It has come to my attention,” he said, “That you are not representing our brand correctly and you need to do something about it.” What he was trying to tell me was it was hard for him to take me seriously with long wavy hair. I didn’t get it cut. But I did move jobs. And I started wearing my hair up in the office.
It wasn’t until age 30 that I wanted to go short and blonde. I was just in the mood for a change. I remember marching into the Vidal Sassoon salon in Notting Hill and saying to the stylist, “I’m done with the long wavy thing. Chop it off, and turn it blonde.” He refused. He said, “You’re nuts. I’ll cut 8 inches off and that will be enough drama. You’ll hate it blonde.” I took a beat and thought, “OK, maybe he’s right.” It wasn’t a popular look — natural was in back then. So that was it — for the time being.
In London in the ’80s and ’90s, when my generation of female journalists were coming up, clothing and how you looked was the last piece of the puzzle. Your look had to be unthreatening, and it couldn’t get in the way of your being taken seriously. You had to fit in. Any hint of vanity was seen as a weakness.
What a difference it was when I moved to New York.
The women were so well-groomed! And I soon discovered an entire economy directed at professional women. Nail salons on every corner. Hair salons that specialized in speedy blow-outs. And I noticed that Americans loved their long hair, and that they would often hold onto it long past the age when in Europe it would have been deemed too much trouble.
I started to realize how much of a New York woman’s life revolved around the blowout; it seemed to dictate everything. I like to swim, but I found myself avoiding it because I didn’t want to waste my hair after a trip to Jean Louis David. Friends would complain about having to schedule workouts around their hair appointments. The time spent worrying about hair just started to seem oppressive.
After I had my second son, hairstylist Chris McMillan took it shorter because I just didn’t have time for hair maintenance. It has to be cut so I can wash and go. But Chris is in LA so now I go to Gardner Edmunds for regular trims, who has a dreamy little salon downtown.
By the time I hit 49, the natural red in my hair was starting to fade, and in 2011, we featured Michelle Williams on Marie Claire’s cover for “Blue Valentine.” Ryan Gosling’s the male lead in it, and how can you not be seduced? As we were looking at cover images of Michelle, I was taken by how chic her hair looked, the crispness of the platinum, and I thought, Why not?
Subconsciously, there may have been an element of “And then I will get to star with Ryan Gosling.” Because really, doesn’t everything boil down to that?
So after extensive conferences with almost everyone in the office, I decided to go for it. Michelle concurred and her advice was to go to Marie Robinson, an NYC colorist who has platinum blonde hair herself. She has a salon in the Flatiron District and I never understand why there aren’t more pararazzi outside her salon because every time I go, there are celebs just quietly getting their hair done. Marie is the one who took Jennifer Connelly blonde. And as a bleached blonde herself, she understands the importance of keeping it in great condition.
Two hours later I came out blonde — and when I got home, my younger son looked up from his homework and said, “Oh good! Now I’ll be able to pick you out of a crowd.”
The following week was Fashion Week and it was all I got asked about. People were stopping me in the street to ask who had done my hair. I couldn’t believe it. Marie says people come into the salon with my editor’s note torn out requesting the same style. I’m hugely flattered.
The great thing about having distinctive hair is, it does a lot of the heavy lifting for you style wise. I don’t have to spend hours thinking about what to wear or how to do my makeup, because the hair is enough already.
It’s a fun and fearless hairstyle, much like Cosmo. When you have short hair, you’ve got nothing to hide behind — it’s just you. I look at others, celebs like Charlize Theron, Kristin Chenoweth, Agyness Deyn when she had a blonde pixie; Michelle, obviously, and I think they look fantastic. In the professional world, I’ve noticed that many powerful women have short blonde hair; people like Thia Breen [Global President of Estee Lauder], Christine Lagarde [Managing Director of the IMF], Mika Brzezinski [MSNBC anchorwoman] and designer Carolina Herrera, to name just a few.
When Miley Cyrus and I first met, we bonded over our hair color and shampoos. You can only use blue or clear ones.
It’s statement hair. For Miley, the hair was the way she let the world know that she was no longer Hannah Montana; for Michelle Williams, it was the way she signaled that she was emerging from the grief of Heath Ledger’s death. For me it was a way of saving time. And while some would argue younger women are best at rocking pixie cuts, this is a cut that works for any age.
People say to me, “Oh, I wish I could do it.” And I say, “Why don’t you?” I’m glad I embraced the bleach. It becomes your visual calling card; it’s a definite look — and you have to own it.