Hair Dos

I bleached my hair.

Not a lot. I don't look like Courtney Love or anything. But I decided I wanted some nice summery highlights, mostly at the ends, like I spent a lot of time in the sun a long time ago. I went to Vanity Junkie because I had a living social coupon. Terrible name, but it actually turned out to be a nice place. I showed the stylist this picture from the Garance Dore blog:



And I told her that's what I wanted. And she said okay and then she just started right in. It was terrifying. I sat there in the spinny chair, covered in a drape, while she picked through my hair and painted it with smelly bleach solution, and I silently panicked. Surely she should have studied that photo more. Surely she should ask me more questions. I should have asked to see her hair-dyeing license. My previous experience with bleach involved two awkwardly placed streaks of orangey blond that a lady at Great Clips put in my hair. I thought it was totally awesome. It looked like this:

It was a dark time.

Anyway, all I could think while sitting in that chair was that she was going to take the foil off and my hair would look like she dipped it in a vat of bleach and it would be weird and yellow or even worse, orange (you how it looks when Japanese people bleach their hair and it turns orange because their hair is so dark?), and I would have to smile and say I liked it and then I would run out and cry in my car for a while and then I would have to hack it all off. And I thought, I have been sitting here forever. What could she be doing? Doesn't she know my hair's turning yellow? Why doesn't she come back? I'm going to have to cut it all off. Oh no. OH NO. And then she came back and checked it and said, "Let's let it develop a little bit more."

And I said, "Okay" with a slightly sing-song voice but inside I was saying NOoooooooo, it's going to look horrible. You're ruining my hair. Ruiniiiiing.

And then she came back and washed it out and then she dried it and it looks great. I love it! It looks summery and light and subtle and not at all weird or yellow or like I'm back in eighth grade. Success.