24-Hour Hair Disaster

If you known me for a good long while, you know that I'm not afraid to drastically change my hair. It's been deep chocolate brown, it's been nearly platinum blond, it's had highlights that were red, orange, yellow and pink. It's been chopped to mere inches, it's been long and flowing. It's been frizzy, flat, curly and plain old poofy. It's been banged and de-banged, layered and un-layered. I'd like a little blue one day, but I figure I'll wait until I'm an old lady for that, because I want to be one of those kind of old ladies--crazy and blue-haired.

With abundant hair variation, and with a budget that at times can be tight, there have been a few of the new hair experiments has gone very badly. Like the time a friend, who was in beauty school at the time, gave me a perm that my hair didn't care for much at all. Which is why, just a few months before my wedding day, when I was hoping to wear a big curly up-do, I had to chop it to a chin-length bob (I still got my curly up-do with the magic of a good stylist). Or the time my sister did at-home highlights for me and I ended up looking like I had orange polka-dot hair. Fortunately I have been able to get it fixed every time, thankfully nothing permanent, and the fixes have often been some of my favorite 'dos.

Well, this weekend I did it again. We're all trying to budget these days, aren't we? And in order to save a bit of money, the past two times I've needed highlights I've had my friends help me with those "paint-on highlights" from a box purchased at the drugstore. And while they aren't quite as perfect as getting them done at the stylist, they've come out well both times.

Friday it was time for a touch-up, so I asked Adam help me out. What came next wasn't his fault at all. It was mine. He was just doing what I asked. I should have stuck with the brand and type I knew would work out, the kind I had used the other two times, but instead I got a new kind. It was called "hair painting." And it was a BAD idea.
So, Saturday morning was spent calling around, desperately trying to find a stylist who could help fix my BIG problem at the last minute. Once I made my appointment for 5pm that evening, I stuck close to home. First, I painted the hallway coming in from the garage (looks nice!), a nice house-bound activity, and when I was forced to leave home for Zach's soccer game I wore a full-coverage hat, although you could have seen the freakish orange hair on the sides had you been looking. But by Saturday night, after hearing things like "spotting seepage" "porous from damage" and "it's bad, but I've seen worse," Amber at ULTA had fixed it. My 24-hour hair disaster was over. It's a little dark, I feel like I look 32...but I am, so I guess that's not a bad thing. She also cut off 4 inches, which it really needed. Thank goodness for a good stylist and tough hair! If only all of life's mistakes were so easily fixed!