The Girl on the Box

So I'm letting my secret out of the bag. I cut and color my own hair. And now that I've said that...please nobody look to close. Truthfully, I'm really fine with cutting it. I know how I like it. I run into trouble around my hair line in the back, but I do a decent enough job on the rest. I've been cutting my own hair for years and years with a few exceptions. I try to get a real hair cut once, sometimes twice, a year. (I know some of you long hair people only cut your hair that often, but short hair needs a trim every 5 weeks or so to keep up a good shape.) But even then, I end up coming home and fixing the parts I don't like.

It's the coloring I really shouldn't attempt on my own...how can we forget the hair dye disaster of '07 when I decided to go platinum and came out cannery yellow. I have not really had a good self hair coloring experience since. I go to the store and the girl on the box always looks so cute and happy about her healthy, shiny hair color. It's way too alluring. Since that fateful disaster two years ago, I've been on a quest to achieve my natural hair color again. It's so much easier to keep up. And sometime last summer/fall I got pretty close and have been wearing it like that ever since.

A couple problems. One. My natural color is a boring mousy brown. Two. With the exception of a few fabulous friends, life in Texas has not been good to me. I am way too prematurely gray for my 27 year old self. Something had to be done. I debated a long time between dying over it a color similar to my natural color or adding highlights. I love, love, LOVE a dark shiny hair color on short hair like mine. But I've tried to go dark a few times and never really been happy with the outcome. My complexion can't take dark hair. And I'm tired of mousy brown. Besides, grays poke through a few weeks after a coloring anyway.

So highlights it was. I think my pale freckly skin looks good with a little brightness around the face. Plus who can really notice the difference between a bleach blonde streak and an unfortunate gray? And truthfully, it solved that problem nicely.

I'm not a pro at the self picture thing. Traci...you're always so good at it. What's your trick? Half of these are in the mirror and half are taken straight on...I didn't just switch my part in the middle of picture taking.

The problem is my color looks outdated. Though the bathroom lighting was not good for an accurate hair color portrayal. I should have included a "before" picture. Genny...you're a hair dresser and you have highlights and your hair always looks fantastic. Advice? Is there a certain kind of highlighting that's in? Chunky highlights have never worked well on short hair for me. I'm highlighting it the exact same way I did ten years ago. There's gotta be a more up to date way to highlight than the thin all over highlights. Any suggestions?

I've been wearing my hair ultra short for over ten years now. It's hard not to get stuck in a rut. No matter how I cut it, it all looks the same two weeks later. And it's hard to move on and not get stuck on what was cool so many years ago. I watched You've Got Mail about 6 weeks ago and I fell in love with Meg Ryan's hair all over again. I realize that that style is way outdated and I wouldn't repeat it, but I love it as much as I did back then. My roommates and I used to watch that movie all the time and be jealous of her cute hair and clothes and I think I'm stuck in that era because I'd do it all over again. Though I have moved past the "duck butt hair cut" as my roommate called it, I think I still occasionally dress like that. I love it.

I never wanted to be the kind of person who can't move past what was cool in my hay day. But I have a favorite pair of CHUNKY black and white wing tip mary-janes (thank you Jeff) that I can't seem to get rid of. I no longer wear them. They're way too chunky to be cool anymore, but I can't bear to throw them. They're still in great shape and I still REALLY love them. In my little mind, this kind of shoe will always be cool. I certainly didn't intend to take this post here.

Since hair is the theme today...Parker talked me into giving him a buzz. I knew it'd be a mistake. My kids look ridiculous with buzz cuts. Reid got one once because of the fits he throws when he gets hair cuts. I swore I'd never do it again. And I did. Parker started naming all his friends who have a buzz. Maybe I'm not going to be a good mother of teenagers if I give in all too easy to the "but all my friends are doing it" excuse. And he's only four. But I want my kids to be their own person. Parker's too old for me to choose his clothes and the way he fixes his hair. If he wants to be a kid with a goofy looking hair cut, then that's his prerogative. And he likes the way it looks. I don't have a picture but I will include this one from Crazy Hair Day at school. Parker designed that look himself. And now it's all gone.