For your consideration

Fall is officially here which means the leaves get darker and for us blondes, well-we tend to want to go a little darker as well…

I LOVE brunettes. I have always envied their silky, shiny, dark chocolate hair color but I’m here to warn ALL you blondes of the evil brown hair dye.
Before any of you consider going over to the “dark” side (no pun intended), please seriously sleep on it…for like a month….better yet, 2 months. Minimum.

And for all you brunettes readings this-please don’t think I think any less of you. This is pure preference, on my behalf, and pure jealousy of your naturally brown locks. ;)

I made the mistake of going ALL brown (what felt like almost black) 3 years ago. Little did I know it would be the worst thing I could have ever done for my hair (and my identity, for that matter).

When I was a baby, I came out with a full head of black hair, hence my Italian background. It soon all fell out and grew back in completely blonde. As most blondes can vouch for, the older you get, the darker your hair gets and therefore, majority of blondes these days are “chemically enhanced”, as I like to refer to it.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in the chair with ALL brown hair dye soaking up the little pores of my helpless strands. No foils separating the blonde highlights from the few lowlights I typically got. I had it cut and styled and was on my way home. I snapped a few pics in the car to send to my mom, dad and Beau so they would recognize me the next time they saw me. I was so excited, but a little nervous, if you can imagine. I couldn’t stop looking at myself in the mirror and every time I passed a mirror, I found myself doing a double take…of myself. Weird.

My hair was silky and shiny-just like the brunettes’ I’d always envied.

As the days passed, the black/brown slowly faded into a more dark chocolate and I was anxious to be blonde again. I scheduled a highlight appointment to end life as a brunette, and to feel like myself again, the chemically enhanced blonde I had always been.

I brought pictures to show the stylist of what my hair looked like before so he would know what I was expecting. {insert bomb dropping HERE.} You can’t put large amounts of blonde on top of dyed brown hair???? WHAT?!?!

I agreed that I didn’t want my hair to fry and fall out and therefore, settled for gradually working my way back as a blonde. I excitedly sat in the spinny chair, anxiously waiting to come out as Goldilocks. The timer went off, they shampooed me out, dried my hair and WHAT? Still BROWN??? I said “HIGHLIGHTS”! I furiously walked towards the register to pay for what I considered crap and left in tears. I had caramel color pinstripe highlights. I called the manager of the hair salon on my way home. He was gay-of course-and I don’t have anything against gay people but he was sassy, to say the least. He argued his way out of a refund for this crappy dye job and told me if I wanted it more blonde I could come back to get it corrected BUT, only if I signed a freaking waiver stating that “If and when my hair fell out due to being over processed, the salon, in no way, shape or form was responsible.” What?!

I dealt.

I was a brunette with highlights for well over 2 years until I finally became a glowing, radiant blonde again. It took that long.

This was Phase I of slowly weening off the brown hair and gradually introducing blonde back into my life. Note the pinstripe thin highlights...grrr...and the fact that I am more BRUNETTE then BLONDE...

This is simply for your consideration. I know some of you “chemically enhanced” girlies have already gone to the dark side this year but for anyone else that is wondering “What I would look like with brown hair?”-call me. Stat. We can go out for coffee (or vodka, preferably) and I can guarantee you I will talk you out of it in a heartbeat.

Cheers to low lights!