Tag: Hair

Fire

On January 7, 2011

When I dyed my hair for the first time I wanted it to be striking. I loved it and it was pretty but it was basically an enhancement of my natural color. Even my mom didn’t notice a difference. I got together with my family a few days afterward and the one who said something? My brother-in-law. Then my mom and sister were all “Oh yeah, it does look different.”

Not the reaction I was looking for.

So this time I told my stylist I wanted something drastic. I wanted red. I wanted people to notice.

Mission accomplished

The cut is pretty hot too, don’t you think?

Or at least that’s what I was told my way too many people.*

I have never felt so beautiful in my life.

I could tell it was a little much for some people. That’s ok. I’m a little much for some people. But for the most part all I heard was how gorgeous it looks.

I never get called “gorgeous.” I get “cute.”

Have I talked about levels of attractive before? Well, in my mind there are levels. It’s not an exact science and, depending on who is saying it and in what context, they can move around but basically there’s:

Nice, cute, pretty, adorable etc. Then, there’s hot, beautiful, sexy and gorgeous.

In my mind calling someone gorgeous is one of the highest levels.

Cute? One of the very lowest. It’s something you’d call a puppy or a toddler. It’s definitely a compliment and I’d rather be cute than ugly. But gorgeous? Something I never saw myself as and definitely never thought others saw me that way.

But, gorgeous or not I think this color suits me. It’s fiery, as am I. I don’t want to blend into a crowd. With this hair I can’t help but stand out. It’s a statement about who and what I am. I’m not just another boring, average person.

I’m me.

And with this hair? I’m just a little more fabulous.

*I say too many because holy ego boost. It’s going to go to my head if I’m not careful.

Virgin hair no more

By Abigail

On August 27, 2010

In pictures, thoughts

I finally did it. My hair can no longer wear white to it’s wedding. Instead, it will be wearing red.

Because red? So much better than white. Or brown for that matter.

Today I took the plunge and completed number 23 on my 30 by 30 list. I dyed my hair red.

I go to the Aveda Institute in Chicago to get my hair done. Their prices are lower than even a place like Super Cuts but I feel comfortable with the quality of the products and I’ve never had a bad hair cut there. The last several cuts I’ve had done by the same girl and I heart her. She’s fantastic.

It was fun when they were discussing my color because they kept referring to my virgin hair. They actually use the words virgin hair which of course made me giggle inside. I’m clearly twelve.

Anyway, the process of the dye and cut took over four hours. Apparently my hair is quite thick.

This was part of the way through the process. She had to get more dye. For the third time. Ha!

Side note, I tried cucumber water for what I’m pretty sure is the first time. Not delicious. I like cucumbers but I think they’re better suited dipped in hummus than as a water flavor. The flavor is actually kind of nauseating. Blech.

The whole time my stylist was as giddy as I was about how good the color was going to look. Once it was done I seriously had so many students and instructors come up and say how gorgeous the color was. And they see a lot of dye jobs so you know it was good.

Oh, here’s a question. How do you react when someone tells you you’re pretty? Like, a matter of fact statement, not a guy hitting on you. One of the instructors came to check my hair at one point in the process and after she introduced herself was like “You’re very pretty.”

Hello, ego boost.

At the same time though it’s so hard to just say thank you. I always feel the need to justify compliments. I resist, but I always want to. It’s probably a whole other post on body image and self esteem but it surprised me and made me think. More than anything though it kind of made my day. Because who doesn’t want to be told they’re pretty?

After my appointment I tweeted about how much I loved my new ‘do and planned to post a picture shortly after. Except I hit traffic… on the way to Aunt Becky’s house to hang out. First Twitter friend I actually got together with. It couldn’t have been a better first tweetup. Because Becky? Every bit as awesome in real life as she is online which makes me so happy. Anywho, her and her adorable munchkins totally distracted me from Twitter (ironically) or posting pictures of my hair. I’m officially a giant tease. Sorry.

So, without further ado, the new hair.

It’s not shockingly different and my stupid cheap camera doesn’t do the color justice.

Perhaps tomorrow I can get a better picture in the sunlight. But you get the idea.

Bonus! I got my headband in the mail today from Krust

AH-dorable!*

I’m very happy with it. I think next time I’ll go even more red.

I think the whole fiery red head thing suits my personality very well.

*double bonus, cleavage shot! You’re welcome.

Done with brown

By Abigail

On August 6, 2010

In pictures, thoughts

Number 23 on my 30 by 30 list (have you checked it out yet? You should) is to dye my hair something other than it’s natural color.

I’m a hair dye virgin. The most I’ve used is Kool-aid when I was a kid. It doesn’t work on dark hair by the way. Ten year old me felt so left out of all my pretty blond friends with their electric pink and purple hair. I’ve also used temporary dye so I guess I’m not totally a virgin. But my permanent hair dye cherry has yet to be popped.

There are a couple reasons for this. The first is just plain lack of money. I’ve never been one to spend gobs of money on my appearance and there are so many things I’d rather do with $75-$150 every six weeks or so. I had many friends that did the trendy chunky highlights in the late 90’s and when they decided to grow it out the in between was just awful. That scared me off any kind of hair dye for a long time.

The second reason is, I can’t decide what other color I’d like my hair to be. I have no idea what would look good with my skin tone and have never had a hair stylist that I trusted enough to tell me.

This is a pretty good representation of my current hair color

Don’t mind me, I’m just glowing white and stuffing my face with cotton candy. Also, try to ignore the massive amount of split ends I have. They’re still left over from that hair straightening incident.

As you can see I’m a brunette and proud of it. Before I fried my hair I always got compliments from the stylists when I’d get it cut. What? They say those things to everyone? Shut up.

I do like my hair color actually…. on the right days or in the right lighting. When the sun hits it, my hair has all kinds of natural highlights. As you can see from my skin tone I don’t get out in the sun all that often though.

A lot of the time it’s just blah. Boring. Brown. Mousy even. I’ve been told I look like a mouse before, I don’t need my hair helping out that image. So I want a change. I’ve looked pretty much the same since I was, um, 15? I feel like it’s a very grown up thing to dye your hair. Maybe I won’t get carded at the movies anymore.

If Since I’m going to dye my hair I don’t want to go halfway. I want something dramatic. I want people to notice. Last time I cut my hair the only person that noticed (including my sisters and mother) was my brother-in-law. Sad. I’m thinking red. Not like apple red, more deep, almost maroon red. Obviously I’d search out pictures and find a good color before I just go in and say “Dye it red.”

I’m totally open to suggestions though. The only thing I want is for it to be really different. I don’t just want a different color brown and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t pull off blond. So that pretty much leaves me with red right?

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments? Go!

Hair Saga: chapter one

By Abigail

On March 19, 2010

In thoughts

Or, The Great Heat Wave of 2009

Oh my hair, my hair. My hair and I have been through many adventures together. My hair has a mind of it’s own, for real. My hair basically does what it pleases whether it makes sense or not. How many people do you know who have had both naturally straight and naturally curly hair at different points in their life? Without a perm? Well you now know at least one. *points to self* There have been many, many hair debacles over the years. I will ease you in with the most recent one.

If you haven’t checked out the post from when I went to Australia you definitely should. It was an amazing adventure and very nearly a perfect trip. I didn’t mention the one imperfection in that post because it wasn’t really the point. However if you know me really well you might have been able to guess. Here, I’ll give you a hint:

This is Joel and I walking the red carpet into the opera house. Amazing moment. Ignore the large man in the background. Notice something different about my hair?

If you said half of it is pulled back then ding ding you guessed correctly. While this is a perfectly fine hairstyle it’s not one I would normally wear. It’s also not how I planned to wear my hair that evening.

I’m a little bit, um, clueless when it comes to hair. I basically have two hairstyles: up and down. For work I’ll throw in a bun every now and then, ya know, if I’m feeling crazy. Other than that I have zero ability to do any fancy up-dos or anything. Since it was a big fancy occasion and a pony tail was out I decided to straighten my hair and wear it down. I know, incredibly posh. My hair generally looks pretty good down and let’s be honest, most of the paparazzi wasn’t there to take pictures of me (shocker I know). I consider myself a fairly seasoned world traveler so, even though I had a straightener from the States, I had my fancy outlet adapter so thought I was set. Plus, Plus, I had been straightening my hair with that exact straightener all the other days I was there. I had no reason to think anything would be different that evening.

You can probably guess where this is going. As I was straightening my hair I noticed what I thought was the effect of not quite drying my hair all the way. You know how when your hair is damp it steams a little when you apply a heating element? That’s what I thought was happening. I also thought it was a little strange because I didn’t think my hair was still wet but in my excitement for the event I didn’t stop to analyze things. At almost the end of the process I realized I smelled something funny. At the same moment I watched in horror as the bits of my hair that just had the straightener on them fell on the bathroom counter. O.M.G. I frantically ran my fingers through my hair and more bits fell.

And then I died.

Ok, I didn’t actually die but I really thought I was going to. I was on my way to walk the red carpet of a major motion picture world premiere. There were going to be movie stars and models there. People were going to want to take my picture (What?! A girl can dream, can’t she?) and I had just fried my hair! There was no time to for any real help. I had a mini meltdown and resigned myself to doing what I could with what I had. The half up-do was the result. Like I said, I’m pretty clueless.

When I came home and assessed the damage it was pretty bad. I had seriously fried my hair basically from root to tip. Some parts were worse than others. The underside of my hair was the least damaged while the top layer of hair and bits by my face were by far the worst. Just my luck of course since that’s the part that shows the most. I went to get it cut and there wasn’t much they could do other than shave it all off and that was not something I was willing to do. They cut as much off as I would let them and from there it’s just been a waiting game. I always thought my hair grew relatively fast but since this whole fiasco I’ve changed my mind. My hair is the slowest growing thing in the world.

Today I went to the Aveda Institute to get my hair cut today. Side not: I love that place. They give great hair cuts, use high quality natural products and they’re super inexpensive. Also, I’ve not been paid to say that. Anyway, since I’m getting to the end of the severe damage (thank goodness!), my student’s instructor suggested some sort of botanical deep conditioning treatment. It involved me sitting under the dryer with a super sexy towel thing on my head for 15 minutes.

Sorry boys, I’m taken.

In the end it made my hair much softer and actually seemed to repair some of the damage. I wish I had a before picture but I don’t so you’re just going to have to take my word for it with the after picture.

I’m not sure how well you can tell because it’s kind of small but I can see that the ends are damaged a little still. The rest of my hair looks super shiny and awesome though so I’m happy. I hope the treatment lasts until I can get back in for another trim.

I only have a couple inches to go before I’m back to having healthy hair. Of course I fully expect my dear hair to pull a fast one on me and add another chapter to my saga before too long. In the mean time though try to learn from my mistake. Do not use your own heating devices in a foreign country. If you have something fancy to go to buy one there or, better yet, have a professional do the job. I still have about three inches worth of reasons why it’s totally worth every penny.