big sigh.

I decided to make some changes in the amounts of money I spend on my hair this weekend. so I went to the Aveda school for some cheapy highlights. I mean, 45 bucks for highlights--you simply cannot beat that. also, I've had good experiences there with haircuts. so there I went yesterday afternoon. I informed the student who was assigned to me that my present honey-colored highlights were too blonde for me and that I was hoping to bring some brown or auburn back into my hair. he had some difficulty grasping what I was asking for, so the intructor was summoned and she exactly described what I wanted to him. it was perfect the way she got what I wanted. she told him which colors and mixtures to use, and we were off!

after all the bleach and die were put in place and after the requisite waiting period, my hair was washed, and I was lead back into the chair where the student would dry and style my hair. once the towel was off my head, immediately I noticed that the bit of blonde highlights he'd refreshed looked much blonder than any of the highlights I'd come in with. I felt a little apprehensive but decided to wait till my whole head was dry.

when the dryer was turned off, I saw that I had several platinum blonde streaks, a few bright auburn ones, and then lasting pieces of my natural color. it looked good, but it wasn't what I wanted. being the too-nice lady that I am, I said it looked good and that I liked it when asked. I left the store, eager to go home and get a real look at my new hair, and when I got in front of a mirror in my apartment, I felt like crying. I had tiger stripe-y hair, which I always hate and never want. and to boot, it was badly done. I found two highlights, for example, that were crooked and cut across my hair at one point.

I decided that, instead of marching back over to the salon and asking for a fix, I would live with my hair for a day and then go back today and all would be well. then this morning, I realized the school isn't open today and I would have to wait till Monday. so instead of waiting, I decided it was better to pay a visit to my friend Vlad, who had given me my orignal perfect-looking honey-colored highlights almost two months ago.

I booked an appointment with Vlad for 2:15 today and immediately felt relieved that I would be getting rid of this crappy-ass new look sooner rather than later. once at the salon, I told Vlad I'd gotten the work done yesterday, hated it, and wanted to fix it. I rashly selected a dark auburn color from the hair color sample swatches he showed me, and Vlad got to work.

I now have very dark red hair.

it doesn't look bad. I mean, it looks fine. but I was really fond of my natural-light-brown-with-fake-blonde, and this switch is dramatic. and dark. also, I've had red hair before and it takes ages to get rid of red color once it's in. I spent at least a year and a half growing out all synthetic color in my hair prior to getting the first blonde highlights back in June of this year, and now I feel like I'm back to a grow-out stage. also, instead of the original $45 I planned to spend on my hair this weekend, I ended up spending $140. so it's been a bit of an "if I could turn back time" weekend for me these past two days. oh well. I'll get used to this new stuff before long. and then in another month and a half, hopefully I can be back on the track to something I love. blaargh. shaved heads are de rigeur again, right?