A Hairy Situation

For weeks leading up to our big trip Scarlett would randomly tell me "Aunt Kandy will give me a haircut in New-tah."  Right she was!  This was her second haircut ever (the curls keep it from looking too scraggly in between cuts).  She did a great job sitting still while Aunt Kandy cut it and Braxtyn took pictures.

Then it was my turn.  With short hair it's hard to do anything different with it.  It takes forever to grow out (the a-symmetrical style I have took mooonths to grow).  And it's not like you can throw in curls or a cute bun to mix it up.  So that leaves coloring it.  When we first moved to MI my hair was black with the pink.  After the twirls I went to my naturalish color (survival mode).  But now it was time for another change.  I haven't been blond in awhile and I've never been completely blond (always just a weave of highlights).  So it's something that I wanted to try.  Luckily Kandy was on board because it turned out to be quite a long process.

You see... just days prior to this I was at James and Hailey's CA reception.  Because I'm so vain I used my favorite hair volumizer at the event (check out my Favorite Things 2012).  This product is amazing and sooo necessary for great, long-lasting volume.  I had suspected that it was a main offender from the whole hive debacle so I had been avoiding it.  But for the wedding I decided to give it another go.  Well, the product still gives great volume but it also gave me a bunch of hives a few days later - around my eyes, neck, but mostly on my scalp.  I really hadn't paid much attention to them until we started coloring my hair....

About to begin.

First we used a mild product to lift the hair lighter (Kandy thought doing it in several stages would be easier on my skin).   (oh, and Braxtyn's still taking pictures... so of course I had to pose for her).  This is lighter brown.

Then we put the bleach on.  What do you do while your hair is processing?  You dance?  Me too!

We didn't want to lift too light but when we took off the bleach we realized we needed to do it again cause it was super brassy (ie: orange).

So then Kandy put the bleach on again and it came out much more blond but still had a yellow ting.

That's where toner comes in.  Toner is like a translucent semi-permanent color that doesn't lift to another shade but just changes the tone of the current level.  For yellow hair you use a purple toner (opposite colors on the color wheel - cancel each other out.  That's why you put a yellowish concealer on your purple under-eye circles).  You can see some of the hives on my scalp at the sink.  I think Kandy did the toner twice that day cause it just buuuurrrrrrnnnned sooooo bad.  I couldn't stand it for more than like 2 minutes (and that whole time I was hoping up and down).  A few days later when my scalp was feeling better I put the toner on again for the full 20 minutes.  I'll probably have to do it in between colorings in order to keep out the yellow.  And I have a purple shampoo that Kandy bought me that helps too.

Kandy was a rock star!  We were working on my hair all afternoon.  I think by the time we realized my scalp was too tender to color we had already passed the point of no return.  But she was so patient and just hung in there with me and even scratched my head while it was processing.  What are sisters for?!?  <3 p="">
In the end I am super happy with how it turned out!!!  I added back the pink in for fun.  I'm not sure that blond is really my "color" but it's a fun change for the summer.  We'll see how I feel after I have to color my roots in a few weeks...

Oh, and when I took the twirls to the doctor last week I noticed 2 other moms in the waiting room with blond, short hair and a pink stripe.  What are the chances?!?  Maybe I just started a trend!  Or maybe I'm just not as unique as I thought... Oh well, I'm still lovin it!