You know, I try not to be one of those self-absorbed, superficial freaks. So anytime I get my hair cut, I remind myself, “It’s just hair. No. Big. Deal.” I mean seriously, having experienced so many botched jobs (including a self-inflicted one), I swore I was desensitized to all this by now. Well, guess not, because even though I kept saying the latest hair fiasco was fine, I was majorly obsessing over it: I rewashed the hair– with Pantene, with my Artec Color Reflector Cherry Bark shampoo. I blow dried. I attempted to style. I didn’t cry or anything but the long, uneven tufts at the nape ate away at me. I could not schedule the “fix-it” appointment soon enough. On New Year’s Day, while everyone else was relaxing and having a grand old time, I scoured the internet in search of pictures for the repaired ‘do. Then, I emailed the hairdresser: I linked to a picture, I rambled about my coloring options, and I pushed for a time slot the very. next. day.

The first day back at work, things were SLOW, which was fine because one of my resolutions was “work is work.” No one said a damn thing about the hair. How super blond streaks could have escaped notice is beyond me but whatever. Anyway, Tuesday night, I returned to the salon. I sat in that chair for another THREE hours. She razored the innermost layer; cut the next layer with notched scissors, and then point-cut the outermost layer. In the end, she determined that the two former techniques didn’t do squat to add texture. She concluded that for my hair quantity and thickness, the last technique throughout the whole head would have worked best. I should have known this, considering I’ve had all those techniques (and more) done on me before, but after so many cuts in my lifetime, how can I remember the details of what works and what doesn’t! Bottom line is, I decided to keep the bleach job. The blond blond streaks are now reddish/coppery (the Artec shampoo perhaps?), so that’s fine. And the streaks are super noticeable, so I’m cool with that as well. The new cut, I must say, is a huge improvement. Still not the BEST cut ever, but so much better. And the cool thing about this stylist is that she’s just a really nice person, who actually has lots of knowledge about so many things– acupressure, massage therapy, cosmetology… she was really sweet about giving me some product recommendations too, and all of it was for stuff I could get at the drug store. So I think I’ll still keep her in mind for future work. I just have to allot a big chunk of time is all.

If you’re curious, her product recs include:
1. Got2B glued spiking cream (in a tube). Good for spiking the edges, as the name suggests. Duh.
2. Zia green papaya enzyme mask. Incredibly gentle organic AHA treatment. Noticing results already.
3. Queen Helene mint julep mask. Already use it. A cheap and effective clay mask.

Ha, ha. Not too late for the new me after all.