FASHION : Hair Styles on the Cutting Edge Have a Beauty That’s in Disarray : Some define the ‘deconstructed look’ as messy. Locally, the look is selling in modified form as a ‘freedom shag.’

If you haven’t seen deconstructed hair, it’s a bit hard to envision. Try thinking of an unmade bed.

But, you have to see the beauty in the disarray, the charm of non-order. We’re talking here of liberty, of discovery, of defiance with a romantic twist; of, you know, art.

In this case, art with an attitude.

The style includes hair combed in several different patterns on a single head, or an overall bird’s nest look. Or, maybe hair divided into segments and fastened with bits of cloth or wire.

We got a deconstruction definition from Enrique Ramirez of Yamaguchi Salon in Ventura:

“The hair is disconnected, it flows together, it doesn’t blend, it could be very short and very long pieces at the same time; a lot of movement. . . . It’s not contrived, not perfect. It just means messy,” he finished.

Ramirez and fellow stylists were creating the look for a portfolio that would be submitted for competition, working on women who seemed to enjoy hair pioneering. We watched hair being cut long in front, short in back, “textured” by a number of different lengths within these segments. One version had a helmet of hair close to the head with extra wisps reaching to the shoulders.

The deconstructed look is a legacy from London. Hair styles, by and large, are not invented in California, like swimsuits. They are imported from England. Don’t ask us why; there’s a mystique about these things.

Anyway, a look starts in London; and by the time it travels to New York, leaps to Los Angeles, then drifts northward to Ventura County, the British will have other bridges to cross--or hair to muss up.

Billy Yamaguchi, co-owner and artistic director of Yamaguchi, means to change this pattern. He sends representatives to London and Europe to get the feel of the newest looks, then he and his team interpret them so that local women can have a cutting-edge experience. Without such intervention, he said, new styles would take two to three years to reach the area.

So far, deconstruction is selling mostly in a modified form.

“Our clients are open-minded, (but) in Italy, France, London people are willing to try things much more than they are here in America,” Yamaguchi said.

“The shag that we are doing is softer and more elegant looking. It’s not so trendy that a professional wouldn’t wear it. We call it more of a freedom shag.”

None of the cuts we saw looked like something to wear with a business suit.

But, to help you plan a coiffure, we checked in with other Ventura County hair stylists. Will deconstruction go mainstream?

They were cautious.

“You are not going to end up with a lot of people who will want to wear wires in their hair with a lot of ponytails sticking out,” said one, who asked for anonymity.

A different point of view came from Kimberly Bence, a stylist at Mane Attraction in Camarillo, who saw a drawback in adding wires to hairdos.

Her reaction was practical. “It would be hell in an electrical storm,” she said.

At Celeb’s in Santa Paula, owner John Aguilar was philosophical.

“I think we are in a time and a place in our lives when we have to start thinking positive,” he said, “I like things that are pretty, things that give a healing type of feeling. When I think of disarray, I think of bad times.”

But, as the style advances, clients might begin to request the look.

The possibility is there. Aguilar considered for a moment, then said quietly: “I would try to redirect them.”