I Did Something Radical with My Hair!

I always hated my hair. 

My hair when I was younger was so straight and fine that when I'd put a pony tail in it, it would slip out. I would attempt to curl it with a curling iron and the curls would fall out after a very short time. 

As I got older, my hair got less "silky fine", and it even got a bit more body and shape, instead of just being pin straight, but I never liked it. 

Because more than anything else, my hair was boring.

Me? I'm not boring. I'm a dynamic, vibrant, vivacious individual. And my hair is just... not.

Boooooring. 

Plain.

Simple.

I tried so many things with my hair throughout the years and nothing made me like my hair more. I tried chin length hair cuts. Nope. I tried layered hair cuts. Nope. I tried growing it really long, and the biggest nope of all. The longer my hair, the more thin and stringy it looks.

If I could have designed the "perfect" hair for me, it would have been boingy curly hair. You know that hair that is just big and alive and that when you pull it, boings back like a spring? I was always envious of people with such hair. But alas, my hair was boring central.

I got so sick of my hair being so boring that I just wanted to hide it. It wasn't me. I felt like my hair made me ugly and someone I didn't like.

Eventually my hair annoyed me so much that I literally gave myself a buzz cut in a fit of frustration.

But that was even worse.

I wanted to feel pretty.

I wanted to feel feminine. 

But whenever I got all dolled up, my hair got in the way and ruined it all. Or at least that's how I felt.

I put out a cry for help on this fashion group I am part of, full of many people that know me, asking how I could transform my hair from something I hate to something I love. And nearly everyone had the same answer- add color! But no, not a natural color like blonde or red, but a fun color. A color that makes me happy. They nearly all said that it should be blue. Royal blue.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how right they were. Blue blue blue. Blue makes me happy. Blue makes me smile. Blue is fun. And that is what I wanted my hair to look like.

I thought to make my hair all blue, and get a fun cut, but wasn't sure what type of cut to even do. I asked people for suggestions of good hair stylists, and a friend of mine sent me to a specific person who she said transformed her hair from something she hated to something she loved. 
That hair stylist, when she heard what I wanted, said she doesn't do coloring, but recommended someone she works with to do that, and I contacted her.

I told her what I want, and she asked for a picture of my hair, and she said that I can't do it. Making my hair blue would involve bleaching it first, and since bleach damages hair, and I already have such fine hair, doing it would destroy my hair.

My first reaction was utter dismayal, and more reason to hate my hair. But she suggested that I could add liveliness to my hair without ruining it, by dying streaks of blue into my hair instead of making the whole thing blue.

Fine.

I go to her salon, and she asks me what type of hair cut I want, and I said I have no idea, I'm trusting her- I know everything I've had until this point I hated, so just do something fun. She asked me if I was ok with assymetrical, and I said that sounds perfect.

She cut it chin length in the front on one side, a little longer than ear length on the other side, and the whole thing lightly layered, and no two parts the same. Basically, an assymetrical bob.

But the color? That was harder. Since my hair is a moussy brown naturally, she first needed to bleach it, and once bleached, she then dyed it.

I loved it.

For the first time ever in my life, I actually loved my hair.

She warned me that unnatural colors like blue are only semi permanent, and that the color would fade and I'd have to redye it.

The original haircut was expensive, but to me it was worth it. Because it wasn't just about the actual haircut, but for the expertise to know what would look good.

But retouching the color, she told me, would cost $30 each time. 

And I thought about it, and then realized that that part I could do myself. Now that I know what to do, and now that the streaks are already bleached, to redye the streaks would be pretty simple. So I asked a friend of mine what brand hair dye she recommends and uses (she said Artic Fox) and ordered that.

And then my hair color faded enough that I wanted to redye it. It still looked awesome, but it was a more teal than royal blue, so I decided to add color.

But because I saw it was starting to go more greenish, I decided to mix the blue with a little bit of purple to have a more intense blue shade.

This is post hair dye when I did it. 

I love, love, love, love how it came out.

It was so easy to do. And since I ordered a large package, I have enough hair dye for many retouchings, which is much cheaper than going to the professional. Yes, my roots are my natural color, but that's totally fine with me, since I don't have the whole thing blue and just want a pop of the blue.

I may experiment with indigo for dying my hair in the future since its more natural and still acheives a similar blue color.

But I just wanted to share with you my journey, from going from hair I hated to hair I'm really proud of, hair that finally, finally, finally feels like me, and represents me and who I am and what I am about.

It was worth every single cent I paid.

Best self care yet.

How do you feel about your hair? Did you always feel that way about it? If you used to dislike it and then started liking it, what did you do to be able to do that? Do you have any fun hair colors?