A Follicular Epiphany

After fourteen years of internal struggle, I've had a major revelation and I have finally come to terms with a very important fact. Ready?

I.AM.NOT.A.NATURAL.BLONDE. Nor have I been for about twenty-four years now. Since I was a little California punk running around in the sun all the time.

Question…why do little kids always have the prettiest hair?! I would love to have this head of hair back. Nice sun streaks, natural wave, and no maintenance other than an occasional brushing.

No hair products required. No deep intensive conditioners, straightening irons, etc, etc. And do you think I appreciated this hair when I was younger? Of course not! I wasn’t even thinking about it!

Just look at this smug little punk!

But trust me, I started thinking about it when I hit about nine and my mane started taking on a life of its own! By eleven, my hair could have applied for its own zip code.

Hel-lo-o?? Kuntry Girl? You in there under all that hair?!

Like most gals, I definitely have had a love/hate relationship with my hair over the years. However, I think I am finally in a place where I can appreciate my hair for what it is. This comes after years and years of total denial. For about half of my lifetime now I've tried to convince my hair that it wants to be blonde and straight. However, persistent as I have been, that darn mane of mine just keeps coming back brown and curly! C'mon hair, work with me!!

The struggle started at fourteen, when I poured the cheapest bottle of lightener you could find over my head, only to learn that "color results may vary from the example shown". Uh-huh. They sure did. My "results" were more along the lines of carrot orange. This was the day that started the whole cycle though...I truly think that since that day I have never had a full head of my natural color!

Lately, though, it's been pretty close. For the last few months I've been trying to convince myself that I should just keep letting my hair grow out and let the sun bleach it. I've been putting lemon juice on it and going out with it wet...it's been working a little, but I usually have my hair up when I'm outside, so only my hairline was really getting lightened.

So last night I caved. But this is where the epiphany comes in. I made the command decision to do subtle caramel highlights, rather than dramatically lighten it. This way, my grow-out will be less noticeable and it won't be quite so damaging.

Care to join me on my journey to caramel highlights?

Check out my sweet "tack box"! I got this for myself a couple of years ago and I love it!!

So, when I'm foiling my own mane, I generally start at the bottom and work my way up.

That way, I'm not obstructed by all sorts of foils on top of my head, which would make it very hard to reach back there.

After doing the bottom, I then section out the next hemisphere and follow the same process.

I always pull it forward and brush the dye on from the underside. Otherwise, I would be reaching behind my head and it would never work. Not for me, at least...that would equal big mess, just waiting to happen.

Another hemisphere down, two to go!

Ah, sweet victory. By this time, my eyeballs are starting to hurt from looking up from underneath the foils. Letting 'em marinate. You can see here that my hair has some left over highlights starting to come through. This is pretty close to my natural color, but I did have some root issues going on. So it was either put some darker low lights in to blend it, or go with some summer highlights...highlights triumphed.

Ta da! Just what I was going for...summery highlights without being too dramatic. Not convinced that I absolutely love this specific color, though. It might take some experimenting to get the exact color that I want. But now that I've had this epiphany and broadened my horizons, my options are much greater!
Of course, there's still a lot of summer left...I can't guarantee that I won't revert back to my old ways. It's just so fun to have blonde, blonde hair in the summer! I'm going to try to stay strong, though. For my follicular health, if nothing else.

You never know, though...don't be surprised if you see "A Follicular Epiphany, Part Deux: I Cracked"! ;) Ha, ha!! We'll see!