A Whole New Me - - - from the chin up

Ok - I have been super busy these last several weekends, making blogging close to impossible (that might be an exaggeration, but just go with it).  Anyway, I have a ton to blog about from Halloween, but just haven't had a minute to put it together yet.  I will try to get that together this weekend.  In the meantime, I will share my new hair do with you.  Why a new hair do, you ask?  Well, it is no secret that I have a few gray hairs sneaking onto my head.  However, this didn't bother me so much at first.  I mean, I haven't seen my natural hair color since I was about 14 or so, so I figured what's the big deal, I'll just keep coloring it.  Well, the last time I got my hair colored (dark reddish - as you know), the hair stylist was trying to talk me into highlights and going lighter with my hair to help hide the grays for longer - - - and she says to me "I mean you're about 60% underneath your color."  I said "60% what"?  She responded "60% gray" all nonchalant, like she had just asked me to pass her the mustard.  I said "WHAT"?  This time with more emphasis.  And trust, I know how to emphasize.  She said, "yeah, you got a lot of gray under there."  The nerve.  And she didn't even whisper it.  I immediately took to social networking so that I could further emphasize my disgust to my nearest and dearest.  When I told Darryl that my stylist told me I was 60% gray underneath my hair color - he responded, as any good friend would, "well tell her to stop looking under there!"  I felt much better after than and went on with my life. 

Anyway, (this was supposed to be a quick in-and-out post, but you know me - I'm long winded).  Long story short (you're welcome), my grays started sneaking back onto my head very soon after I had my hair colored.  I am the type that will go way beyond the recommended time for a re-color, so I was not happy to be faced with hideous gray roots only 3 weeks after my coloring.  Yesterday I decided the stylist was onto something with the whole idea of going lighter so that they grays aren't as evident when they start sneaking back onto my head like the plague.  I emailed her and said I was ready to "go light" (I'm going to refrain from making the obvious joke here).   I asked her if I needed to book any extra time or if the usual time for a coloring was appropriate.  She said the usual time would be plenty.  She was wrong.  I arrived at the salon last night at 5:00pm and didn't leave until 9:00pm (a usual hair coloring lasts no longer than an hour).  When you are going lighter, you have to strip the darker color down (with bleach).  It all sounds very violent, I know.  She put the bleach on my head and set me aside.  My hair turned a lovely pinky/orangy color.  Final step (or so we thought) was to add the new color and voila, done.  Didn't go like that, at all.  As she was rinsing the color out she noticed that the lightening wasn't necessarily even so she added a gloss and let that sit on my head.  Mind you, the bleach already sat on my head for nearly 30 minutes and the new color already sat on my head for over 30 minutes.  Now some gloss was going to sit on my head for 5 to 10 minutes.  My frowzies were already like "WTF dude."  Anyway, She took  me to her chair and started drying me.  That's when she started shaking her head.  I don't like it when doctors or hair stylists shake their heads while looking at my body parts or hair.  But she just kept shaking.  Then she says to me "It's a little uneven, so we have two options, we can go back in and do highlights (more bleach) and add a different color in between the highlights or we can try to put a whole new color on and see if it evens out.  I'm not sure why she was asking me, but she looked like she was trying to lead me towards the highlights, so I said "let's go with highlights."  So, some bleach sat on my head for 30 more minutes and another color sat on my head for another 15 minutes and now I have a new hair do.  And a bit of a headache.  I am getting used to the highlights and she tells me the copper color will fade and make a nice strawberry blond.  I guess my hair is still "in process."  I am not totally in love with it yet, but it is growing on me.  The Ladies of the Conference Room gave their stamp of approval.  

A collage of my road to strawberry blond
(top left - was after the first bleaching; top right was after first
round of coloring; bottom right and left shows the highlights and the
in-between the highlights color - oy vey)



You can't really see the blond stripes and the too orangyness
in this pic, but all in all It's growing on me