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.

Dang, girl

I left the salon feeling good, feeling cute, but not until I scrolled through these photos did I realize DANG! The before & after is serious.


This isn't even a full haircut. He just cut the bottom parts. And again, ratted it with his fingertips in a way that I must perfect.

This is a follow-up to the fun news that I'm going to be a hair show model. My recent frequent salon trips are preparatory for the show. I'm not paying for all this extreme hair maintenance of late.

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!!! 

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.

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. 

Pale Girl Dark Roots

I'm on gradual self-tanner, I swear.
I got in on that dirty-dark roots and bleached out ends craze and that process looked like this:



I like it! My real roots are going to bust into these new, fake roots. It's totally dark in the back.


Getting to work today looked like this- Target dress. Threw the detachable straps in the trash - Big mistake. Bow belt from H&M. Charlotte Russe flip-flops that are on their last... breath... Kate Spade bow necklace. 


All of my stuff has a bow on it right now so I need to take a break from them and get back to hearts. 

My Brand New, Red, Short-but-Thick Hair.

Here's what happened. I started out the day in a headband-


Gwynne did my cut and color today. I rarely get them both in the same day because of cost, but it's been a season and a half since I've been to the salon for either. I've written a review on Yelp about how yes, this salon is expensive, but if you plan accordingly, you can have a slice of the fancy salon pie.

Gwynne saw my hair pulled back in the headband and decided on the spot that I needed to wear my hair back. We discussed baby bangs, but she reminded me that she's been wishing I would let the top be thick and grow long for like 3 years. I was feeling completely behind her ideas on whatever - so I said "go with it."

The color discussion brought this idea - I like dark hair, but I feel like if my hair is too dark, I over-compensate with tons of dark make-up, so my hair color can't be darker than my eyes' lightness. She completely understood.

I wore it home like this - up and back.

But it's fun like this too!


It's kind of great that I got this new color, because I'm being more conscious of makeup lately and I have 2 fun makeup events this week. This bright red lipstick is my new best friend MAC Lady Danger. I swear 10 people at the salon asked me what this color is. Red-Orange is the future.

I'm not going to wash my hair for at least five days. I got an all-over color, highlights, a conditioning treatment with scalp massage, then a glaze. Five days is fine.

I got a new pot of Kerastase Conditioner. It's just so great. The shampoo came from Gwynne's recommendation. She knows I am on board to preserve my color the best I can.


This was after the all-over color and before I put on my makeup and got the highlights.

I'm Rachel Maddow again!

Today was one of those I really love my New York City life days. Like, savoring these moments because one day I'll have a kid and won't be able to put myself first and be outrageously self-indulgent at the fancy salon. Maybe I'll maintain a fancy salon life, but probably not like this from A to Z - getting dressed, buying snacks at the deli, taking a cab, etc. In the cab downtown to the appointment and I was thinking about my tremendously sad & depressed childhood in Arkansas. I'm here and in my current life because I've made good choices. One of those choices was getting together with Matt, who became my husband, who is my awesome partner in life- who is why we are able to live here. Together we work our respective jobs, and I can tear it up like this. My Mom would be so impressed and proud.

The Stephanie Szostak Hair Post

This topic was my most popular blog post/search/whatever of 2010. My blog changed locations in 2010, so there was a sort of interruption in service with keywords but my #1 most popular by leaps & bounds posts was the one where I talk about Stephanie Szostak's hair. 

Dinner with Schmucks is coming out on DVD this week and I bet another traffic flare-up will occur. I sat in the theatre clawing my arm-rests trying to burn the images of her haircut in my brain. I almost want to buy the DVD so I can look at her adorable hair over and over. Even my pics on Flickr where I mention that my haircut was inspired by her hair are top most popular photos. 

I tried to find new photos of Stephanie today on Getty & through Google image searches but I found nothing. I wonder what she's up to? If she googles herself and finds this- she should message/comment me. I believe she lives on the West Side and I will ride my bicycle right over there to hang out and talk about cute haircuts. 

I was SO LUCKY because I already had a hair appt. on the books for the next evening as I sat there in that 'Schmucks screening. (I went to a couple free pre-screenings this summer.) This haircut lead the way to my hair becoming very short this summer.

If you're looking for that Stephanie Szostak haircut- I don't know where she goes salon-wise, but it looks to me like a razor cut. As in, that cut was not done with scissors. It's very asymmetrical. If you can't handle your hair being long on one side and short on the other-  move on. 

Cut my hair - cried a little about something totally unrelated

I cut some of my hair today. I had to wash it today, it smelled bad. Then I put 2 and 2 together and I rode my bicycle about 9 miles on Sunday and today was Wednesday. Ok, time to wash it. Lots of bicycle miles makes me need to wash it more often.



I'm pointing to the place where I swear a rat-tail was starting. I'm not in the mood for a rat-tail. And yes, that's Ponds cold cream on the ledge. My grandmother has great skin so I'm going to go with her program.


Detail:

If someone wants to see a photo of my hair razor I'll show you. It's a $3 tool I've had for about 9 years.

My outfit photo is super-noisy *camera noise.





My eyes welled-up with tears and I almost cried because I couldn't get a taxi after work. I was carrying my sewing machine in both arms and had to walk many Avenues before I finally got one. It was so sad. It's a little embarrassing to cry over such, but in NYC you can cry on the sidewalk and no one will bother you. You can have a little bratty cry if you want and it's fine.