Riot and Frolic

What many of you have been saying for years is official: I'm blonde.

For reference, I started 2013 like this:

In April, I made the MASSIVE decision to get bangs.    

Then in June, I chopped off my 12" ponytail.  If you've read my complaints about long hair (read about it here, here, and here), you'll know this was a relief, even if I look skeptical in the picture.

Since my hair was short (AKA, easier to grow out if it got totally damaged) and I had always wanted to try it, I made a 3.5 hour appointment at a highly rated salon in town to turn my tresses PLATINUM.  Yes, 3.5 hours.  All of them.  But after all of those minutes in the chair, there was no doubt I had blonde hair.

I don't have many picture of those first few weeks because it scared me.  It was like looking at the negative of a photo, except it was MY FACE.  IN THE MIRROR.  

Very disorienting.  

I couldn't figure out if I was having more fun because I was too worried about not letting anything touch my hair.   I had read extensive amounts of blog posts about bleached hair being brittle and sponge-like, breaking off and soaking up colors from sweatshirt hoods and HORROR STORIES LIKE THAT.  DON'T TOUCH ME!

On the plus side, I got asked if I was a model more than once.  That was weird, but flattering.  Note: short blond hair = model, regardless of grocery shopping for chips and ice cream and beer.

People didn't recognize me.  People, like my mom.  So, as ridiculous as it seems in all those movies, dying your hair makes you incognito.  

A month went by, and even with my roots growing out, I started liking it.  And after I got my second "bleach and tone" (now I know what to ask for!) and a bad-ass European mullet (I mean that lovingly) haircut, I LOVED it.  

Now I look like this:

Yes, that's a whiskey glass on my shoulder.

Want my blond tips?  Here:

• PURPLE SHAMPOO.  I guess there's purple conditioner, too, but GET SOME.  (Clairol's Shimmer Lights is highly recommended and Sally's carries it.) My hair started out WHITE after the first bleaching, but I used my regular ol' shampoo.  My hairs got more and more yellow, and less awesome, until I did some more interwebbing and found the ye olde purple shampoo trick.  It just tones your blondeyness and makes you not look stupid, trust me.
• Call around for pricing.  The first place I went to was great, but the second place was even better AND CHEAPER (Phresh Salon Spa on Grand Avenue, I go to Annie).  Plus, at Phresh, they offered a bunch of different tones of toner to choose from, from pearl white to seashell.  Yes, it was like picking the perfect white paint for your living room.
• Don't wash it.  I started doing this when I cut all my hair off, much to The G's dismay, but since blonde hair can get pretty dry, use what God gave you and skip the suds most days. 
• Have someone do it.  Like a professional.  Most of the terrible stories I've heard are from DIYers.  It's expensive, sure, but my hair doesn't feel like straw and doesn't smoke when she's bleaching it.  And this is coming from someone who has 20 YEARS experience dying her own hair. 
• Spell "blonde" with an "e" at the end, it's more often grammatically correct.

Yeah, that's all I got.  It turns out it's not as much maintenance as I thought.  I mean, I have to go to the salon more often, but on the daily, it's pretty carefree.

Have you ever done something crazy with your hair?  Mohawk?  Purple?  From blonde to black?