how I ruined my hair (and subsequently my life)

This story is a sad one, that I am sure happens to girls all the time. It is a story that needs to be told with lots of pictures, so one can understand that true tragedy. Ok, here it goes. Once upon a time I had ridiculously long locks. I had them long for quite awhile and thought it a good idea to chop them off and donate them. Making sure to keep my hair long enough to put into a ponytail still. While I won't say this was a huge mistake, I sort of swore that I would never do it again.

 So I started the process. You know the one. The one of growing out your hair. I made it past the dreaded "barely hits my shoulders" or "wear it up everyday" phase and I was finally loving my hair again. See here I was on the 4th of July, perfectly happy with my hair. Then the dreaded happened.... I became bored. I wanted a change. NO!! Don't ever let this happen to you!!

The first thing I did was tell my hairstylist I wanted a change. Oh no. Since I had never gone red before, this was what we did. A subtle strawberry blonde shade. I was happy with it. I got tons of compliments, people telling me "you make a great red head!"

What? What's that you say? I make a great red head?! Ok then, full fledged henna dyed, red hair it is!  I am sorry to say that the picture below was not just temporary for halloween. I had put the most permanent, flaming red dye on my hair and it was here to stay.

Now don't get me wrong. I loved it. I absolutely loved having flaming red hair.  I have the right complexion for it, people always complimented me on it. The only problem was that my hair grows at lightning speeds. I was having to color my roots every 4 weeks. And if you have ever used henna, you know that this is no easy task.  So after about 6 months of the red I started the dreaded process of going back to my natural color.

It was no easy process. The first time I went I stayed at the salon for 8 hours. I had no idea I was taking on a new full time job. While the first picture is a little terrifying, it ended up being ok and I left the salon with soft brown color. Again 4 weeks later I had those bright white roots growing in. Not ok.

Some time later we went a little blonder like you see below. That dang red would just not go away. Apparently red is harder to get rid of than black? Who knew? I think after this picture we tried one more time to get me to my natural color before we headed to New York.

It was in New York that I decided it was time. It was time to cut off my hair. It was so damaged at this point that there was no point in keeping it. Yeah, it was long but it was not cute. Giant fluffy blonde pony tail = not cute. 

So that is how this....

Got turned into this...

18 inches. gone. Do you have any idea how long 18 inches is?! I can't remember the last time my hair was this short. I thought it would be so nice. Let me tell you, it's not. It sucks. No more pony tail. boo. I can't even pull half of it up. double boo. It is the same style every day. And the only time it looks good is if I blow dry and straighten it. No thanks.

So while it looked cute after my stylist did it, most the time I let it air dry and it looks somewhat disheveled and not so pretty. As pictured below. All you people with short hair that claim it is so great, now I know what you are really thinking, "Man I wish I could pull my hair back".

So while being red was fun and I loved every second of it. I would never do it again because in the end I had to chop it all off and it left me longing for the hair pictured below.  So while I didn't really truly ruin my life I most certainly did ruin my hair. I can say with absolute certainty that I won't do that again. At least not for a few years... Now grow hair, grow!!

Please note, this was right after my mission, which explains why I look like I am storing nuts.