Chopped

I have this thing where I grow my hair out, forever and ever, then get sick of it and chop it off.  It is usually a quite drastic cut, and then I regret it about 20 minutes after I leave the salon, and thus spend the next 6-9 months growing it out again.  I haven’t done the drastic haircut in over a year now, which means for the past 18+ months, I’ve just been growing and growing it out.

Well I reached that point where I couldn’t stand it anymore.  When it gets super long, I spend 90% of the time with it pulled back into a ponytail or some sort of bun/wrap deal, just to get it all out of the way.  I was starting to feel like I was drowning in hair, and like it only looked good if I spent a good hour on it before work, so basically like never.  Thus, I knew it was time for a change.... but not my usual drastic cut.  Last time I did the cut, I wanted to look like LC in this photo (my stylist totally FAILED  to capture my vision that time):

This time, I just wanted to get rid of the length and go for something lighter and fresh, that I could still wear up or down and style lots of ways.  Here’s how it came out, before and after (before pic is blurry because it was first thing yesterday morning and I was looking rough)

Only four people at work today noticed the change.  And two of them are my BFF’s that I see all the time, so I knew they would notice!  So I guess it wasn’t really that big of a change at all. NONE of my kiddos noticed.  Oh well.  I’m loving it and have zero regret {so far} on the new do.  And these days, anything that saves me some blow-drying time is totally okay in my book!

Ombre! Or.... not.

For the past several months, I have been contemplating taking the plunge and getting my hair colored with the ombre effect.  I have that itch to do something to it, but I didn't want to cut it or drastically change the color, so I thought ombre would be a fun change for summer.  I purposely waited until after my brother's wedding, in case it turned out terrible, before calling to make the appointment.  Last night  I visited my usual salon (and ran into BFF Kristen who coincidentally also booked an appointment that same day!) with the following pictures in hand (thank you Pinterest):

I told my stylist (who was rocking some gorg ombre herself) I was nervous because a) I haven't colored my hair in at least 10 years and b) I didn't want to look too blonde.  Other than that, I told her I trusted her to make it look good, than sat back in the chair to watch the magic happen.

My friend got ombre done at this same salon several months ago and her hair looked fab.  I knew they had used bleach on her ends to lighten them, so I was prepared to so the same.  Instead, my stylist said she would color my hair with two different shades, which sounded even better to me.  Score!  After painting it in around my face, she stuck me under the dryer to wait it out.

 I texted this photo to Mark and said "I'm in the astronaut chair!" to which he replied, "where are you traveling?"  Ha.

Finally the moment of truth came.  She took out the foils, washed my hair and started to blow dry.  I kept looking at it and thinking hmm.  I can't really see a difference.  She told me that ombre looks "so much better when it's curled" and then whipped out a [pretty awesome] curling iron.  I left the salon [at 9:00 at night on a Tuesday] with some rocking curls, but still could barely tell it was a different color.  Hubs confirmed it when I got home and asked him if he could even tell what I had gotten done.  His reply? Umm.. turn on all the lights. Hmm... not really.

Here it it today at work.  Le sigh.  I can *just barely* see a slight fade into lighter color, sort of there on the left side.  So, should I go back and ask for a re-do, or rock my subtle shade change for awhile?