Baby, I'm Bored

totally natural

I need a change. I think it's going to be my hair. I'm bored with my look.

I’d like to drop 20 or 50 or 70 pounds, but that isn’t going to happen overnight, & I want something nearly instantaneous. I want a pick-me-up. I need it.

I don’t want to cut my hair. I like having a ponytail on a daily basis. It’s bone straight & baby fine, so I don’t want a lot more layers- they just make it look thin.

I have been playing with my make-up again, a little bit, here & there, when I wear it. That’s been fun.

bolder 2-toned streaks

So I guess it’s back to the hair… For about a year I’ve been wearing it with long layers with 2 tones of caramel highlights. My natural hair is what the hairdresser calls a #5, a dark brown, but not the darkest of browns. It also has a lot of natural silver highlighting. More silver now than last year… The last time she did my honey-toned highlights, she asked me if she could put some brown coloring in between…. What’s that tell you?

I’m not afraid to be salt-and-pepper. I’m not afraid to go totally gray. Men go gray. I'm a anything-they-can-do-we-can-do kind of chick. I’m just not ready for it yet. A friend of mine says she doesn't color her hair because she wants to, she does it because she has to. Hogwash! You too can be distinguished at 40 if you so desire. When I first started getting the silvery strands in noticeable numbers, I left them alone. Well, the very 1st, I plucked because I was only 13!! But once I got to be over 35 I kind of left them alone. There are just too many to pluck.

I'm pretty low-maintence in the grooming departments. I don't like to spend a lot of time or money on it. I did all that when I was younger & I'm kind of over it. Let's face it, it's not going to take off 20 years or 20 pounds. Though spending an hour or 2 in front of the mirror taking care of only me does bring a certain amount of indulgence with it. There's a luxury not many moms have. Harkens me back to college when a bartender I fancied called me "Fresh Lid" because I changed my hair color, style & cut so frequently. Ahhhhh, Yeah, I'm over it.

There are beautiful, famous celebrities that are totally gray- Paula Deen, Jamie Lee Curtis, & style maven Stacy London, who is approximately my age. Check it out: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/hair/celebrity-gray-hairstyles I'd feel perfectly justified in going silver. It's my hair afterall. But why already? I mean, I'd just get bored & have to change it again before it ever came in fully natural. I cropped the ends out of the photo above that show a slightly off tint from a grown-out coloring.

colored my 'natural' color

When I saw some of those pictures of myself, & I noticed that the dark parts of my hair were darker & the silver didn't glint the way it does under bright lights & sun.... It looked very flat, dull, & almost too dark for my skin tone. Then a few more slivers of silver showed themselves. And a few more. My hairdresser was still supportive, that they weren’t prolific enough to whole-head dye. (I like change, but I don’t like maintenance.) But I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror once & I kid you not, my hair looked dusty! Seriously!! Me!! I've always had compliments on my hair from it being shiny, or soft & silky, to holding it’s shape or even being thick to growing fast……& now it’s grayed out so much that it looked drab & dusty! Dusty equals bad. So I dyed it my natural color. And it just came off like black to me. I don't think hair looks right when it's 3 shades darker than the eyebrows.

the subtle highlights

So I made an appointment. I went for all over copper highlights. It was subtle. Almost too subtle. It definitely warmed it up, took away the dusty cast, but didn’t wow me. I didn’t bother with a touch up for almost 6 months when I went for bolder, more caramel colors with a new stylist. And I like it. A year later, I still like them, but I feel bored. I feel like it is time to change. I read in the magazines that going into fall, darker, richer, warmer colors are going to be IT.

I’ve had every color under the sun. I've chosen pics here to illustrate, when my hair is pretty much the same length in each. I can’t say I make a good blonde, so I left that out. I always got the most enthusiastic responses when I was a redhead, but maybe that's 'cause I was young & thin (& stacked! LoL!) It’s a tough call for me since my husband claims he doesn’t care for red hair, even though it was red when we met & started dating…& got married. I haven’t been a redhead since my 8 year old was in the womb. I don’t pick my clothes or style my hair based on my husband’s tastes, but I do appreciate it when he finds me attractive… With more than a decade behind us, it’s nice to know he does.

a dark auburn

I know I don’t want to try blonde again. Even though I’m sure that a good colorist can find a blonde shade that would flatter me, I have nightmares of the maintenance. So do I pick a chocolately, velvety brown? A rich caramel? A chestnutty choice? A sweet sable? Or do I venture back to the reds? A blazing sunset? A copper penny? A fiery auburn? If you have an opinion, offer it up. I know what I'm leaning toward & you might just get me to go through with it or bring me to my senses.