becoming blonde

I have been tempted by the thought of going blonde for awhile now.  Twice I got blonde highlights that lightened my hair a bit but were so few and far between that they were barely noticeable.  I know it's kind of ridiculous, but for some reason I feel that dying my hair makes me inauthentic, as if I'm cheating nature or something.  Of course, the other factor that has prevented me from doing this is cost.  Highlights are SO expensive! And root maintenance adds up quickly.

But when we were in Vail, my friend, Carly, offered to do "heavy highlights" for me.  For free.  All I had to do was buy the $10 box of hair dye and she'd take care of the rest!  She's such a good friend :)  Carly is always dying her own hair and I have often felt jealous of her inhibitions in this area.  I wished I didn't care so much about whether or not my hair color was my "true" color, but rather could have fun experimenting.  Afterall, you only live once, right? In the spirit of change, I threw caution to the wind, gritted my teeth, and told her to go for it - to make me as blonde as she could.

I changed into some of Carly's "crappy" clothes (in case I got covered in dye), we ripped up pieces of tinfoil, mixed the dye (which became an unnerving blue color), Dan grabbed the camera, and before I had a chance to second guess myself, Carly got to work:

60 minutes and one empty tray of hair dye later, I was a blonde:

I am so glad I did this! Of course, I went through phases of loving and regretting it.  At first I was obsessed with it, hardly recognizing myself in the mirror.  Then, I worried I looked washed out.  That I should have waited 'til summer.  Now, I love it again.  And I think it's time to do another set - my roots are already starting to become noticeable.  Hair color aside, the most important lesson I learned from this endeavor is to not take myself so seriously.  This wasn't something permanent or life-threatening - it's just hair! I took the risk (if you can even call it a risk).  It didn't kill me. And I actually ended up being really happy about it. I need to apply this laid-back mentality to more aspects of my life.