I hate having brown hair. I was born with (well, no hair, but eventually I got some) bright blonde hair – a peachy, strawberry color – but like my dad whom I got the blonde from, eventually it faded away. Instead of getting streaks of white around my face in the summer (and worrying about it turning green when I jumped in an overly-chlorinated pool), my dark locks only softened gently in the sunshine.

For about a year I had been thinking about solving this dilemma of being a brunette – NOT that I don’t like brown hair on other people…. I just always thought of myself at least being somewhat blonde-ish. I have a history of making weird promises to myself like “I won’t ever dye my hair until I need to (to cover up gray)” and “I won’t dye my hair until I’m at least 28 years old.” What the heck?! Anyways, I had started asking people about coloring their hair, just to see.

I never had wanted to do it when I was younger because I’m so about being au naturale, I knew it could be harmful to your hair and I had damaged enough hair as it was, and honestly I just didn’t care about my hair that much. I also knew it required a lot of upkeep and it was expensive.

After enrolling in grad school and signing a lease for a new house, I thought maybe it could be time for a fresh start, hair-speaking. Once I saw a few friends get gorgeous hair cuts and color from a particular stylist, and realizing that getting your hair done in Southwest Virginia is probably the cheapest it could possibly be, I decided to finally go for it! But then I waited a few months to have a little extra money in the budget since we had spent a lot when we moved in. (I feel a bit like Ross in this decision… it was oooonly 12 years before he started dating Rachel!).

Here are a few pics from my hair-spiration board on Pinterest:

And a before:

After taking the (3-hour and disgusting amount of money) plunge:

Oh, come on, you didn’t think I’d show you that quickly did you? 😉

I told my stylist I was a hair color virgin, but that I was ready for something new. I had been growing my hair out for years, and I wanted to just cut it short so I wouldn’t have to worry about the heaviness. I wanted to have interesting hair so I would be motivated to actually style it instead of throwing it up in a bun or a braid every day! And I wanted to be blonde again… but since it’s getting ready to be winter, not overly blonde.

She knew just what to do! She decided to go for the balayage, because that’s what my inspiration pictures were of, and even though she didn’t have all the necessary time set aside, she made it work. It’s a little more expensive than regular highlights, but is more low-maintenance. You only need to re-do it every 6-8 months (or knowing me and that I won’t want to spend that much money again very soon, probably every year). It’s really natural-looking, and she blended the color in so that you would definitely be able to see a difference from my previous hair, but so that it also wouldn’t be a crazy huge change. I was scared when I saw how much hair she was taking off, but it felt great to not “have to worry” about having that much hair anymore.

I absolutely love it!!! It feels so fresh and different, I think the color is so, so perfect on me (it’s exactly what I wanted!), and I love the length!

More pictures!