Link to My First Post About My Hair Adventures
Before I start with a blog post about something as shallow as my hair, I want to let you know that we finished up the school year with a bang. Emmett and Carmen had great success with their standardized testing and they are well into their summer work now. Hard to believe how time flies.
So I have somewhat of a deep conviction that I can still take care of myself while being a busy foster parent and biological mother to 6 children (one of whom includes my awesome 20 year old who lives on her own).
See, before I was married, my friends and I would joke..."It's ALL ABOUT ME!" I even had my own lounge pants with that message written all over them. Well, over the years of marriage and family, my "It's all about me!" mantra morphed into something like, "It's all about SANITY!"
So I always try to find ways to keep my individuality and sense of self while living with an insane schedule filled with meetings, social workers, therapists, teachers, school meetings, meal times, driving from here to there and eating junk food.
For me, my hair kind of symbolizes the whole taking care of myself thing. What I remember of my own mother was that she rarely did anything for herself. Having 10 children, I can imagine how hard that would be. Come to think of it, she DID get her hair done on a regular basis. I remember going with her to "Dottie's Smart Set" on Union Street in Schenectady, NY and waiting while she got her her hair washed and set in curlers, I guess. Her hair looked the exact same my whole life. But she did take care of it!
Be that as it may, life experiences shape decisions I make along my journey.
Or I could just be upset because this is what I looked like in 1984...(I'm the one on the left)
So since I am growing my hair out to it's natural color and stopping the slavery of applying color to my roots every 3 weeks, I have decided to take the leap to get the rest of my hair closer to my natural color in order to not look as scary as my 1984 self.
What follows is the story of that fateful day....
It started with my green juice. I brought that to keep nutrition in me for the marathon 5 hour appointment.
And here is the before picture. UM, I really look like this. I look really tired and puffy. Ugh. The lighting makes it hard to seet he orange/yellow tones. I did a BAD bleach job back in February and missed a great deal of my hair so it was basically 5 different colors.
In the words of my stylist, Adela, as she began the process....
"We will say a prayer to God. Everything will be ok. We will pray to God."
Above two pictures are after the 1st application of bleach.
Second application of bleach
John was with me the WHOLE time. All 5 hours. He was such a good boy. He had a few toys and books and snacks and he hung out the whole time. I even had a Daniel Tiger app I installed on my phone just in case and I didn't even need it. Aw. JOHN I will always remember you, my little buddy, hanging out with Mommy at the salon.
Um, yeah. This is me finally with the toner on my hair. Eagerly awaiting the result. Adela even did a little makeup for me.
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Finished product! No more yellow and muli colored hair! Adela was brilliant. I LOVE what she did. I loved it so much that I took a car selfie and I NEVER take car selfies!
Now this appointment was 2 weeks ago. Below are pics from how it looked yesterday after a few washes and heat styling....
I love how it looks like a different color depending on the light. All the below pictures were taken yesterday by my 7 year old. The pics on the left were taken outside at the park and the pics on the right were taken inside after using the flat iron to smooth it out.
And yesterday is when my Starbuck's barista guy asked me if I was lightening my hair. He said, "every time you drive through, it's a different color." lol
The important thing is that he told me my hair color is trending right now. YES! So my roots are silver and that is what is trending. It only took 20 years for me to actually be cool.
It's my time, people...It's my time...
So there you have it. I want to go all silver. I will decide from here what the heck is going to happen next. The toner is not permanent so remember that if you are making a big hair change. I would suggest to go ahead with a toner and just sit on it for a bit before you decide to add more permanent color on to your locks.
I am so happy that Adela knew exacly what I wanted and took such good care of me! After that marathon appointment, I wasn't stuck with a high maintenance hair situation or another permanent color that I may or may not like.
So yes, you can take care of yourself and still have long hair while being a busy mom. All my children were behaved and accounted for as I spent the whole day on ME.
Carmen's comment to me the first time she saw it, "You look weird." I quickly disciplined her gently in a nurturing way by yelling, "CARMEN! I'm TRENDING!! Now go to time out until you can tell Mommy she looks COOL!!!"
Enough about me...I have to sign off now and head to the library with the kids so they can check out their new batch of books for the summer reading program and then it's back home to make lasagna for dinner before having 2 meetings at the house. But hey, I may get a few stares from some people who know my hair is trending...
Carry on people!! Have fun with your families and never lose sight of the REAL DEAL.
