French actresses and singers were my biggest childhood obsession. Mireille Mathieu, Charles Aznavour and Joe Dassen were my idols simply because French was the only foreign culture "allowed" in the country I grew up at. Their music was naive enough for our brain washed reality. So I might have missed the early Guns N' Roses and Paula Abdul, but my French idols provided everything a young girl needed, including a personal style inspiration.

The mysterious Mireille Mathieu was everything I wanted to be - beautiful, confident, modern, sophisticated. Her signature haircut was very straight cut just above the eyebrows accentuating the eyes. I dreamed about this haircut.

One day my dad took me to the most stylish kids’ hair salon in town to get my dream haircut. I was about 7 years old. I sat at the fancy chair and told the unhappy young woman in front of me: “I want the Mireille Mathieu haircut”. She looked at my head full of thick uncontrollable curls, called my dad, told him something quietly and we immediately left. I was upset and had no idea what went wrong.

When we came back home I heard my mom raising her voice: “My daughter never ever had hair lice!” She was right, I didn’t….

Curly hair was pretty rare find in our area, and hair stylists didn’t even know how to treat it, so lice were a very convenient excuse. I’m sure my parents didn’t think this accident is going to traumatize me back then, but somehow I spent the last 20 years researching all the latest straightening tools – from rolls to irons, dryers and Japanese straightening processes.

I still want that Mireille Mathieu hair!

Bottom pic: the closest version of MM hair my curls could shape into.