Hair update: Short and dark blonde

Here's how my hair turned out after my appointment with a new person. I'm happy with the color, but I've found some issues with the cut. (Some blunt ends if that makes sense. The whole cut was done with scissors and I think I'm more of a razor cut wig myself.) It would be very NYC of me to have one person for color and one person for cuts. I'll have two people for cuts, actually, because I'll never stop cutting it myself.

I was doing a little eBay photo shoot today with some vintage items. 



I know it was so bleached before that it will fade back to be extremely light blonde in some parts, but I feel like these colors look pretty natural and my roots won't be too shocking.

Even though that's OK because I've got an appointment for late Feb...

Hair Mood Boards

I'm seeing a new hair person on Thursday. I'm sick of looking. I really want to settle down.  He sounds amazing and I really want things to work out between us. I want to have a lasting, productive relationship. I really want to establish a standing appointment. Having a standing hair appointment will be some grown-ass-lady stuff. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

I've been creating mood board collages of my hair history. The good and the better.

Sure, it's vain, but it's also hard to create verbal illustrations of how you expect your hair to turn out. I recommend when you're having a good hair day that you photograph it. You don't have to share it with the internet, but save it somewhere you can refer to if you need to meet a new stylist.

I sometimes feel like a little psycho taking all these photos of my hair, but look, they're helpful. I'm really happy I've got this crazy-girl archive to mull back over and decide where to go from here.






Til then, I'm breathing deep and printing, printing, printing examples.

I bet I'm the only person who brings in example photos of myself.

Hair Update: Blonde Bob w/Roots

I enjoy the beauty school, but I guess I wanted something different and I observed a blonde woman's hair for a while and asked her who she goes to. (I asked a blonde person because I think blonde trickery is harder and the last brunette I asked sent me to a terrorist.)
My blonde lady-friend goes to someone who books a month in advance.
I made the appointment weeks ago and my appointment was very near but I am happy with my hair at the moment so I postponed until January.

I have been cutting my bangs myself. I guess I cut the sides and back too.



I did feel frustrated and diseased by having roots all the time but now I kind of like them. I'm Ok with them... for now...  and since we're going to try a popular person, we have no choice but to look like this til' January.

Hair update: Growing a haystack

I haven't talked about my hair in a while. It's super long.
I had a bit of a trauma and I'm just getting over it, so now I can talk about it. I went to a new colorist and she put some dark brown streaks in my hair. I didn't cry, but I made her re-do it.

I don't know why in the world she thought it was OK to put dark streaks. Not OK.

This means it's crunchy-dry. I got these fiercest rehabilitator Kerastase, and it's recovering from the crunchies. It's kind of nice being so cotton-y though, I'm embracing my 1960's style cotton-boll hair.

I've had one haircut since I've been in Arkansas, and I got it at the Paul Mitchell Beauty School for $10. The student did a good job and I'll be back to get her to trim this hay stack.

I should have just gotten it colored at the beauty school.

Hair Show & DIY Salt Spray

I'm going to be a hair show model in about ten days. I'm super excited because I love to get professional hair & make-up. I really love to learn about hair & beauty from professionals.

I'm going to be in this show for this salon:


Yes- after my sessions end, I am going to soak up the convention.

Viva on the Left, Kate on the right. This is my lock-up spot for this salon. I love the cafe balloons. VIP.


Yesterday, I got the message that the owner wanted to see me again and speak to me about the show.
My hair went on a job interview. The owner ratted the ends of my hair with his fingertips and I fell in love. I spent a lot of time at work today trying to re-create what he did.

Tonight I went and met the stylist in charge of me for the show and he gave me a thorough cut and talked about his plan for my hair for the show. I am definitely getting my hair cut twice and colored once and a conditioning treatment before the show, then I get completely done-up for the show both days... I think. It's unclear if I'll get styled exactly the same both days.

I loved tonight's cut. I love my blunt bangs. After he did them, he taught me how I can maintain them myself.


I am really happy how every hair person who's dealt with me lately, including these guys, and the lady who did my hair for the NYPost are very supportive of me cutting my own hair. They're really happy for me, and that makes me glad I cut it myself the past couple of months.

My guy tonight also confirmed that my DIY Salt Spray is Awesome. Never buy salt spray again, guys. Make that stuff at home. 

How to make it? Take a bunch of sea salt and mix the heck out of it in HOT water so the salt dissolves and then put a little leave-in conditioner in there and mix it some more. You could also smash the salt with a mortar & pestal if you're fancy. And add fresh lemon juice to make it a little sticky. 

He told me another more complex technique that we can get into if we hang out and you care. You need actual ocean water from the beach. Maybe after Memorial Day and I can visit the beach I'll do a blog post tutorial. 

He also taught me what I should do after I put in dry shampoo. I've been using dry shampoo incorrectly it seems. I just brush it out. You're supposed to blow dry your hair a little bit too. I'm excited to try it and find out but until that hair show, I don't think I'm going to do much to my hair myself at all.

YES! I absolutely ran into the bathroom to take pictures of this done hair...

My face was/is tired. This face has been on the go for 12 hours.

I had to smash it with my bike helmet. Safety before Beauty. 


Safety before Beauty!!! 

Hair: Tamed with bobby pins

I used some bobby pins to pull some of my hair back for my Friday night event.
And I sewed this new style for my Fundraiser-Online Shop. 


I'm trying to do this middle-part trend. It works on day 1, but on day two, I wake up with my old lefty part. I put a little mousse in this hair before I blew it dry.


This new peach color is added to the shop too.

Good news on the beauty front

#BikeGirlProblem of the day - Hair sticking in my lip gloss. Mostly I wear MAC Lip Glass. The above is Nymphette.
When you try to be a safe and alert rider and turn your head, your hair cannot resist being blown by the wind directly into your sticky fresh lip gloss.

Great News: You can get Lip Glass on the Back to MAC program! That’s when you return 6 used-up MAC containers. You get to choose a free lipstick or lip glass.

I turned in 12 containers last night and got an oldie-goody C-Thru and at Liz’s impromptu suggestion I took Nymphette and I am in love with it. I’m crazy about lip glass because the container is very small, colors are sheer, it’s thicker than most lip prods and you don’t have to really pay attention when you put it on. No precision is really required. Not like that high maintenance lipstick stuff.

Other good news: Cutting my hair myself for the past 6 months or so was a great idea. I got my desired haircut- a wavy little bob. People hated on Chloe’s shaggy bob but I loved that mutha and decided baby bangs and shaggy sides was my aim and now I’m there. 

My middle part is a little wonky but I don’t like to work too much on my hair and I don’t believe in fighting my waves. Even though I spend way too much time thinking about and discussing my hair and my plans for my hair with friends and co-workers and the internet. (Most of the traffic my blog gets is hair-related so people who get up in this piece have to wade through bike stuff to get to the hair posts :) Hi!

Sewin' & Choppin'

This photo illustrates what I've been up to lately:  Sewin' necklaces & choppin' bangs. 

I'm also currently enjoying allergy-medicine googles. Sunglasses saved me from pollen bombs flying through the air on my commute this morning. Pedestrians and bicycle riders listen up and wear sunglasses or fakie clears. Pollen balls are whizzing around out there! 

That's what I've been up to! Check out my fundraising for 5 Boro Bike Tour necklace shop here. 

Tomorrow I'm going to post my notes and thoughts on the Upper East Side neighborhood bike share meeting I attended tonight. Right after I package and ship some orders!

I do feel qualified to discuss the bike share now, and I even sat on one of the beasts.

My Fluffy Big Hair

I did something different today with the hair routine. I just shampooed with Bliss SuperShine and skipped conditioner. I put a touch of conditioner on the ends after blotting it dry and did not rinse. I blow-dried it to about 90% dry and I use a round-brush. I know my co-workers were staring at the bigness.


I haven't whittled or thinned it out in over a month. Normally thickness can't survive because I get hot wearing a helmet and rush home to cut it with my thinning razor. I'm like Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite, I don't even hesitate to relieve myself of the misery of a hot wig.

I'm trying to embrace the possibility of having that wall of bangs like Zooey D.

But alas, when my head gets hot, and when I feel like blow-drying hair is a waste of my precious time - out will come the thinning razor and I will chop that shag right off.

Curling Irons and Pressed Powder

My blog is a little too bike-y lately. When dudes start commenting about serious bike mechanics, I know I need to throw them off with a seriously girly post. Let's talk curlin' irons!

I let my hair dry air-dry for President's day and it was big and wild, but pretty clean. I didn't want to do much for it Tuesday morning when I had to go to work. I dug out my old curling iron. I sprayed my hair lightly with some Ellnet and did a few curls. I really just corrected pieces that were really sharp at the ends.

I was very pleased. But gosh, I'm shiny.


Speaking of shiny... Here comes a sad story... I'm not kidding, it's sad.... 

Today is the 11th anniversary of my mom's funeral. She died on the 19th and her funeral was on the 21st of 2001.
Whitney Houston's recent death reminded me that one of my sorority sisters came and sang a Whitney song at the funeral. 

My Grandmother wanted some deacon at her church (puke and puke) to sing a song. I had heard him sing before and it was a horror story. I pretty much gave my friend no choice about singing. She had to do it. Luckily, you can't say no to your friend whose mom just died. I'm pretty sure it was her first funeral gig.

So Nakita came and sang "Count on Me" Whitney Houston style. I can't even think of YouTube linking it because I will fall apart if I hear that shit, so sorry, google it yourself if you're curious. Nakita was a sorority sister and almost my whole sorority attended and I am so grateful to them for doing that. Classes were skipped en masse.

Fast forward to recently, I don't know many smells in the world that remind me of my mom, but I know of one. If they ever change the formula, I don't know what I'll do, and this makes me understand people losing their minds over discontinued products. 

I can have a memory of the smell of my mother in Cover Girl Clean Pressed Powder. 

For the first time since she died, I stopped smelling it at the drug store and bought my own.

The State of My Hair... is Strong!

My hair was in a very good place today. I recently got it colored after putting myself on SalonApprentice.com To my surprise, I quickly had someone reach out to me who worked at a frighteningly fancy salon. Of course I was ecstatic to take the appointment. Fancy hair at rock bottom prices is probably my favorite bargain-y thing about NYC.

Since I was seeing a stranger-girl,  I made this diagram of times where I liked my hair and styles I was into. A mood board for hair! 


She just gave me partial highlights and a couple low-lights and a gloss. I can't tell you how much I paid because it was a scandal of cheapness, like, OMG! so cheap and wonderful.

While I got this hair worked on, I read the original Girl Scout handbook from 1913 and was delighted at how feminist it was. And it constantly reminded me of The Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook, as in, open your windows and be healthy and don't be excessive. Do good deeds. You can be anything you want to be, but have some sense.

Then after my fancy hair appointment of course, I had to ride my freakin' bicycle in the rain. Right after I figured out how to get out of Bergdorf Goodman after-hours. Yes, I was a little scared. - About the Bergdorf part.

Riding in the rain in this pink jacket is the story of my life lately.

I wear a helmet to protect my fancy hair color.

Growing, cutting, growing

I was a useless lump today except I did give myself a little haircut.
I'm trying to grow this stuff out with some unity but sometimes you have to weed-out your crazy flips and rat-tails. My orange lipstick is MAC Vegas Volt. It's easier than red. 

I pulled myself together to go out to dinner after just laying on the couch all day.
We did take Bonnie dog to Central Park this morning to have coffee and pastries and lay in the grass and sun.

I'm excited about my new motorcycle jacket that came from a real motorcycle store.
I got it a few months ago when it was SUMMER so it was on SALE.

It's ultra-wind-proof and has wonderful pockets and I love this shade of pink. Very Lady Biker Badass.

I realized we are twinkies in our helmets and black-frame glasses. His are real and mine are fake.


I can't believe this is about our SIXTH night of not only riding bikes together but simply the fact that we haven't had a night where were did not go out at night to do something. We need to ground ourselves. Just for one night. 

Maybe don't try this at home

Maybe don't drink your dinner then go home and cut your own hair. I've had years of practice.
The first time I gave myself a drastic haircut was in the 5th grade.

Lotsa times my hair gets thick and round and I just cut it myself. Here's my result from last night's affair.

I had a life-long hair-dresser in Arkansas. When I moved to North Carolina I didn't know who was going to cut my hair, so my Arkansas hair-lady told me to buy a razor like this - It was less than $5 at Sally Beauty Supply. 

I've had this one razor for about 10 years.

Last night I felt a final straw moment with this hairball.

I definitely look more put-together. 

I didn't even see these results until this morning (after a fresh wash & blow-dry) because I passed-the-heck out last night and just slept on wet hair. It looked amazing this morning when I walked The Bonnie Dog at 6:30am. Gorgeous, I tell ya! I'm quite embarrassed about my dog-walking looks which occur at that early hour on week-days. Sometimes I'm smart enough to cover-up with sunglasses. All these maintenance dudes and construction workers see me walking Bonnie-dog, then I re-emerge later and no one recognizes me. 

I don't know if I will ever grow out of this asymmetrical cut if I just keep repeating it. I'm OK with that. Who needs symmetric hair anyway?

The saddest part about cutting my hair is knowing that I'm cutting off $$$ in haircolors. Yes, $$$. 

*I'm in no way encouraging anyone to cut their own hair. If anyone jacks themselves up, I never told anyone to cut their own hair. I'm just telling you about how I do it. Probably don't cut your own hair. Don't do it. 

Rando Monday Stuff

Cooler temps, cycling fast to be the rain - Great success! 
There were so few bike commuters today I kind-of thought it was a work holiday. No? I was just a crazy girl gambling with the rain.

Monday outfit. I thought it was cool enough to wear pants but I was pretty wrong.
It was mad muggy.

My hair/bangs now long enough to be warn backward.

I'm fake-tanned. Don't even worry about my skin health. SPF all the time.

Clear safety shades from Vans - Fakie Glasses.

Forever 21 bows & hearts necklaces.

This little piece of Times Square is still a section of my morning commute that I have to consciously remind myself to "Beee calm" 


Just some Monday rando-pics. This is going to be a pretty full week. Full of fun! 

My Boyfriend Jimmy

Forever 21 dress, H&M Belt that Katy Perry also has, Dollhouse Cowgirl boots.

I decided these boots are too grubby-looking to wear to work, but they were A-OK! to wear to see my boyfriend Jimmy Fallon this morning!

I went to a kind-of strange TV show filming or webcast for the CBS Early Show today where Jimmy Fallon was their guest. I got dressed in a cute dress in case he asked me to spend the afternoon with him because you never know. 

Here's my new haircut. My face is featuring I love you Jimmy Fallon MAC lipstick in Amplified!

Pixie bangs. Ahhh... I would have preferred to keep more length on the back, but I also wanted to cure the extreme flip at the ends, but it's growing out either way.  -By growing my hair out, you should know shoulder length is long is my book. 

I went to CBS Studios on the West Side. Biking over there was a breeze. Fast, pleasant temps, all that.
I paid $25 to go to this event BTW. They had a nice breakfast spread. They did a mini-studio/sound stage tour, then we were ushered into a sound stage where the CBS Early Show would be filmed. Jimmy came out and pretty much immediately took over from the host and hilariously and adorably talked, told stories, fixed bloody mary's and more.

I said "You've got to do more Yacht Rock stuff!" And I asked who he would play and he said Kenny Loggins. I didn't tell him he would have to pick someone else because that spot is taken.

Worst self-photo I've ever done! But I captured me and Jimmy Fallon touching our foreheads together and that's what matters. It was a really special little event and I'm very glad I attended!

We got copies of the new Thank You notes book and he signed mine as he rattled off his phone number. Kidding! 


I was so happy! And I had the whole afternoon ahead of me and I devoted it to domesticity for the first time in ages.


I forgot to mention that I put the Schwinn's old bell on the new Linus. Matt did it for me. I need LOUDNESS! That Linus bell was so crappy, you have no idea. It was like, worse than a Happy Meal toy.

Yes- that's my New York Public Library card (on my keys.)

Posing with my new friend, The Linus Dutchie Kate Middleton of the Upper East Side of New York City, on our one week anniversary.

We rolled around on these streets seven days in a row! No sign of stopping!

Here's my history with going to a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
The guest line-up was so bad that night none of my friends would leave work early to go with me. Today's event was better anyway!

Here's an old post about me failing in the stand-by line for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

And here I am two or three birthdays ago with Hollywood Steve, the host of Yacht Rock in a sweet Yacht Rock themed dress I made.

My Hair is Badass Right Now

My hair is in an amazing place right now and today was an especially good hair day.
I used a different/new shampoo & conditioner due to travel circumstances.

Today I washed my (3-days dirty, I think it matters how long you go in-between washes) hair with Bliss Super Shine Shampoo & Conditioner. I'm glad I stole them from the W hotel on Sunday!

My hair is super shine! Dang!


I get tons of blog traffic from people looking for Stephanie Szostak's hair from Dinner for Schmuck's. I realized my hair is kind of getting back to that place again, just less stringy.




I had to keep on wearing this t-shirt since my flight got canceled and I spent the night at that random but truly lovely hotel the airline assigned me to.

I had an email conversation with a lovely stranger about haircuts recently and I explained my 2-part bangs. There is a layer of baby, asymmetric bangs-


And the highlighted swath on top-


My eyes are red due to early morning times and lack of Pond's Cold Cream. I have to scrub the MAC Opulash and Liquid eyeliner off w/out Pond's. I thought I was going to get luxurious alone-in-a-hotel beauty sleeps, but that Obama/Bin Laden news came on and I started texting up a storm and watching the news!