Hair-story, Part #200912078

Well, it seems that way to me, anyway.

This Friday, I'm off to get my hair cut.  The Saga of My Hair kinda sorta continues.  There have been some definite developments, however:

1. I stopped getting my hair colored.  I do miss my reddish hair, but a) it was expensive, b) I don't mind my gray hair (just wish I had more, frankly), and c) I'm pretty sure I was the only one who cared anyway.

2.  I have found two "acceptable" stylists.  Not great, not perfect, but fine.  I can go back to them if my search for someone I just click with fails.  I have three more possibilities.  Sadly, I'm not actually as picky as I sound ... I just want someone who *gets* short hair on women!

3. The above acceptable stylists are pretty reasonably priced for this area.  That pleases me, even if they are not a 100% match for me in the end.

So anyway, I'm going to a new person at a previous place on Friday after work.  I liked the place, but the person I got turned out to be really rude, and only willing to do what they wanted, which was not anything like what I wanted.  But I've heard of the person I'm seeing on Friday, and have stalked them on Instagram, and it seems as if they have a lot of experience with short hair on women.  Fingers crossed.

A lot of my friends think this is all hilarious, because "when you have short hair, why do you need to get it cut regularly?"  Well, for one thing, my hair grows pretty quickly.  Right now, for instance, it's sticking out.  Not like this, which would be OK:

But like this, over my ears (though not as much hair, needless to say):

Also, I've never had this much hair in my life as the woman in the above photo!

My last haircut was one of the acceptable ones.  I had seen a woman on the street with exactly what I wanted.  I stopped and asked her where she got her hair cut, etc., and made an appt later that same day.  When I got to the place, I told the same stylist that this woman had, the whole story, and she said, "Well of course we can do that, it will work just fine!"  At the end, it was "fine" but not what the stranger-on-the-street had.  I kept thinking as it grew, it would look more similar, but nope.  Granted, the woman I saw likely has completely different hair than I do, but it was somewhat disappointing.  Especially since the place had a RESIDENT CAT!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the above-ear hair at least trimmed, and the rest too.  Even when it's not 100 degrees outside, I cannot stand to have hair down my neck, and it's grown to the point where it's really bugging me.

Who knows?  I may hit the jackpot this time.  If not, it will still be OK.  Just slightly disappointing.

Another thing that falls into the category that my sister calls "White Man's Problems." :-)

Dirty Clean Hair

Hello and Happy Friday!  Actually I have to admit I'm actually not happy that it's Friday, because we have been on vacation this week, and so this is my last vacation day from work, which is way beyond depressing.

One of the things I did this week was get my hair cut.  I had originally made an appt for cut and color, but since we have been investing a lot of dollars into Dug's rehab therapy, I changed it to just a cut.  I was hoping that my gray hair would work to make it look good.

Well, I am pleased with my haircut - nice and short for the summer, and I don't have to blow it dry unless for some reason I want to (you know, a state occasion like someone's wedding or something).  But my gray hair has let me down, I'm afraid.  There's not enough of it to make the rest of my hair color look OK.

Growing up, I had blonde hair.  By the time I was 30, it was not the light blonde of my earlier life, but more of a dark, muddy blonde.  I used to get highlights, which helped a lot in making the rest of the muddy color look acceptable.  Then a few years ago, I decided to try getting all-over color, since I keep my hair short and the highlights grew out too fast.  My stylist at the time talked me into a shade of red, and not only did it look great, but it grew in just fine, with no weird-looking roots.

The last time I had my hair colored was about six months ago, when I had a falling out with the guy I had found and originally liked who was cutting and coloring my hair.  He insisted on doing what *he* wanted, and I was not pleased with the result.  So by the time I went to get my haircut on Wednesday, it was all grown out.  I had a nice splotch of gray in the front, and then other gray throughout, and it broke up the dull.

Sadly though, most of the gray got cut out.  And I'm left with sprinkles of gray, but 99% of my head is the color that my blonde hair used to be when it was dirty!

The good thing: I'm really the only one who cares.  I have finally realized after a bazillion years on the earth that 99% of the people I see don't notice me, or my hair, no matter how good or bad it looks.  Plus, at some point, I will have a ton of gray hair, and hopefully it will look nice.  In the meantime, I can save my $$ so that the next time, I can get some color.

The bad thing: I own mirrors. ;-)

Gray Hair

I started getting gray hair in my early forties.  No big deal, since most people I know and have known have gotten gray hair eventually.  At the time, my hair was still naturally a pretty light blonde, so if anything, the gray gave it some highlights.

Then my light blonde hair started to get darker.  Not really any color, just a darker, dirty-hair looking blonde shade.  It made me look sad, frankly.  (The Tim: "I don't understand why your hair always looks dirty, when I know you wash it."  This from a man who *very* seldom says anything about my appearance that is not a compliment.)  As an adult, I've more or less always had short hair, because in spite of my imagination, I do not have thick, lush, wavy hair.  I have always had thin, fine, straight hair that is so soft, it barely holds a part.

So I decided that since I wasn't able to do much style-wise with my hair, I'd be adventurous and try getting it colored.  I wasn't going to try to do it myself, because I am just not good with things like that.  Plus, I wanted someone else to blame if it all went south ...

The hairstylist I'd been going to was willing to experiment with me.  The end result was a) a cute short cut, and b) an amazing color that was a deep red/brown, but looked like my own hair.  As a matter of fact, when I showed up at work that next Monday, a co-worker said, "Oh you went back to your own hair color" and would not believe that I'd always been a blonde!  Anyway, this worked really well for a couple of years, and then much to my dismay, that hairstylist retired because she had a second kid.  (Don't these people realize their professional obligations???)

Over the next few years, I tried different people and places, with varying degrees of success, but never quite the "click" of the original person.  Over the last year, I've tried several places.  One of them was pretty amazing, but I was so grossed out by the stylist's filthy workstation, I just couldn't make myself go back.  The next time, at a different place, I was pretty pleased, because I thought I had finally found a good fit with a new stylist.

Fast forward to last week.  I had made an appt to have my hair cut and colored this past Saturday.  Actually I spent most of last week deciding whether or not to get it colored.  For whatever reason, I was feeling that since my 60th birthday was coming up, I should just see how much gray I really did have, and how it looked.  But then I decided that I would get it colored one last time during my 50s, and work on revealing the gray after that.

The new stylist referenced above?  Turned out to be a real bully.  He refused to listen to what I wanted as far as color.  I should have just said, "Forget the color, just cut it," but in an attack of eejit-ness, I let him talk me into his idea.  Which on the surface, sounded good.  On my head, though - not so much.

Oh well.  Hair grows (mine grows really fast), and I've already made my next appt for a cut someplace else that was highly recommended to me, and is even closer to my house.  And since I'll be the apparently magical 60 when I go, I'm gonna let the color grow out until I see how much/what kind of gray hair I have.  I'm hoping for a head of gray hair like one of my sisters' has, or like The Tim has - lovely, bright, silvery-white gray.

I'm thinking I'll look a lot like this:

'Cause, you know - I look like this all time just sitting around the house ...

But deep down, this will probably be closer to the truth (except shorter):

I'll keep you posted.  :-)