The Hair Scare You NEVER Want to Have

{{ I will preface this blog post by saying that I have done SO much to my hair in the last 4 years that what happened to it was probably bound to happen when going from red to blonde and back a few times... }} 

Quick Life UPDATE: 

Quick side note... following up from my previous blogpost about leaving the network marketing company I was with for 5.5 years... got me thinking....

What do I do with this blog? So much of this blog circulates a part of my life that is no longer {{apart}} of my life. Its so crazy. But cutting it off would be like losing a phantom social media limb. I mean, I've had this baby since I was 21. And here I am typing away at 27. That's a good chunk of time right? 

Part of me debated starting a whole NEW blog. A whole new arena, but I think so many of you have been following me now it would only create confusion. Plus, I do not want to lose my readers... I've received hundreds of messages from women (and the occasional dude) about their own struggles, stories of success and stress, and I appreciate each one. Plus this corner of the internet universe has over 1MILLION hits! <3 WOW thank you!! 

I am however in the midst of starting my own business, finishing my health coaching certification, starting my group instructor certification, and embarking on a whole new journey of entrepreneurship. It's so mind boggling to think that the things that were once so out of reach, that were so out of focus... are being pulled into focus and existence all because I made a leap of faith. 

Life is beautiful, crazy, and full of sweet little moments like that. 

Ok but now onto the drama...

So as I mentioned, my hair has been through the ebb and flow of my tastes, distastes, cuts, dyes, you name it. I'm one of those girls who's willing to change my look time and time again. I want to see what I think I can pull off.

If you've been a long time follower of my blog and/or Facebook you have seen my seasons of change. I've had black hair, strawberry blonde, burnt orange, platinum blonde... and the list goes on... just not in that order.

Last year I decided I was done. Done. I was going to take time off completely from dying, cutting and messing with my hair. It was becoming too brittle and tired.

So I had one last appointment to lighten the hair closest to the roots so I could at least grow it out with some ease and it wouldn't be too shocking.

Even still, my hair was literally BANDS of color... I wanted to keep the length so bad, so I just dealt with it. I wear my hair up most of the time, and curling helps because it sure can hide a lot.

About two weeks ago, I decided I'd like to finally give it a cut and try to remove some of those bands of red and blonde in my hair and find some common ground. I have a photoshoot coming up at the end of the month to start re-branding and showcasing this NEW chapter of my life... so I thought 'why not!'

Well little did I know, I'd be chopping MOST of it off. And that part of the reason was what hairstylists refer to as a chemical cut.

I do not blame the hairstylist who did my hair, I gave her my hair history and the first mistake we made was NOT doing a test strand. I showed her THIS picture of what I wanted, and considering my hair color, it didn't look like it would be too hard to do. Well turns out, it was. I'm not sure if the stylist wanted to eliminate all the bands of color and then go back in and do strawberry lighting but either way, I was screwed.

When you have so many previous methods of dying from different professionals to home dye jobs in your hair, the amount of chemicals and metals that are in the hair are impossible to detect for catastrophe.

So here's my hair before on the right... this is 9 months of not doing anything to it. Then the picture of me on the left with the long blonde hair is post salon look. My hair felt like the usual stiff  blonde bleach post dye job (lets face it, bleach is the devil).

Then this what happened after leaving a coconut oil/olaplex hair mask on it for a few hours... 

Yes, I cried. A few times. Yes, I was mad at myself. Yes, I knew that putting bleach in my hair was like Russian roulette... but I had NO idea it would do THIS. Nor did I think the stylist I saw was 1. going to take me THAT blonde and 2. did so because she was inexperienced.

I mean literally just fried and frizzled off. It was like wet noodles.. or like pad thai. I don't know, but it was awful.

So then I went back to the salon, and we were ALL shocked, confused and like 'WOAH'. But there was only one REAL solution after damage like that, cut it. Cut it all off baby.

I knew the night before going back to the salon if worse came to worse and I had to cut it off, I'd rock it, accept it and realize there's much bigger things in life than getting your hair cut. I had to get a grip on the whole situation. Shit happens. That's all there is to it. And the fact that I wont be cutting it again for a very long time.

So here I am now... I have a LOB. I don't mind it, its not my favorite look but its cute and I've always wanted to try it just never had the guts to cut my hair without a little drama first.

My cousin said I look more sophisticated. LOL. Thanks Meg, you know how to cheer a girl up. Honestly though, I'm gana rock this lil LOB and then grow my hair out and see some more of those natural light roots. I want to be as low maintenance as possible with my hair. 

And I just had to throw a quick flexing picture in here because why not.  Feelin' lean, strong and for the first time in  a long time... FLEXIBLE!! Goodbye robo-non-stop-lifting body. 

Quick Update: I posted this last week, and after days of being super frustrated with the blonde hair and not intentionally wanting or asking to be that blonde, I had my friend Matthew over at Salon on 30th (here in San Diego, he's amazing btw) put some strawberry back in. I did NOT go back to the salon/stylist who took me to the blonde you see above. 

Clearly, I'm much happier being a strawberry blonde (which I originally asked for). 

So my two piece advice to you gals is this: 

1. Always do a test strand. Even if its been a long time since you've dyed your hair and you've done tons of hair masks. 

2. If you have red in your hair, do some research on Olaplex and reactions to redheads. 

3. If the stylist who's about to do your hair sounds like they want to use a ton of bleach, don't do it. Figure out another way! 

Now I just have to figure out how to do this  hair... short hair isn't really my favorite, but I'll figure it out ;-)

Stay tuned for hair products that I'll be testing and let's see how long it takes me to grow it back! PS I am OBSESSED with the Unite hair product line as well as It's a 10! Miracle leave in spray. 

Ciao Bellas <3