What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday: I'm Fancy

My hair...oh my hair. 

It has always been such a defining thing for me, ever since I decided to get it cut like Joey McIntyre from New Kids On The Block back in 4th grade.  That actually happened and I have proof. (sorry it is blurry...or maybe i'm not) 

Just in case you are confused...I am on the left, and the real Joey McIntyre is on the right...just in case you got confused.

See...not terrible...not awesome, but not totally terrible. (I just keep telling myself this)  There were actually a few friends that followed me on this "trend" so it had to have been ok, right? 

At any rate...my hair has always been something I take a lot of pride in and enjoy. Back in high school I started highlighting my own hair along with my friends hair using that Revlon Frost and Glow kit you can buy at the drugstore...the kind that comes with a cap and you have to pull your hair thru the tiny holes with a metal poker thing...I might be scarred from that, it was kind of painful! Anyone else use that kit...I am fairly positive it is still around.

I have also had my hair super dark/black, super blonde, super orange, super sunset colored...oranges, purple-ish, browns, yellows---all in one hair style. Yeah...my hair has been thru a lot. I was always pretty willing to try the latest style or color, although after the Joey McIntyre thing I resisted the urge to go super short ever again. 

At this point in my life I am starting to see gray...and I am talking about my hair. Yes...I am 35 and my hair has a significant amount of grays that love rearing their ugly heads.  To save money I started dying my own hair with salon grade hair dye.  I am totally fine with the dark brown...it really is very cost effective and doesn't take that much time for me to throw on my roots, but I love dimension to my hair. I like when there are several colors going on...it looks more natural in my opinion. After much research (thank you pinterest and youtube) I found several inspiration pics. I took them to my amazing hair stylist, Tina and we went to work.  

I told her I wanted to still be able to dye my own roots to save money so I only wanted to lighten my ends and some of the midshaft of my hair. She totally understood me, which is always so nice in a hair stylist. 

Here are the pics I took in for her to see what I wanted:

So some would call this balyage or ombre...either way I just wanted it to look more natural and not super streaky or a huge difference in the colors.

This was my before:

My during...such a cool technique of teasing/back combing my hair to get a "shattered" effect with the lightener...then using a toner to get the exact caramel color we were looking for.

And my after:

I am IN LOVE! So happy with how it turned out. If you live in the Zanesville area and are looking for a great stylist check out Tina at Style Out Loud ...she is AMAZING!
 
Linking up with Jessi and Jenn