Appropriate icon is appropriate

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Hey, if Lauren's hair can have its own tag, I think mine deserves at least its own post, lol.

I've decided I am tired of my hair and want to do something different with it, but I don't quite know what. :( I think I'm ready to take the plunge and start coloring it (the grey has been bugging me for a while, but I also want to liven it up a bit) and reddish/auburn highlights sound like fun. I used to have them naturally as a kid, and I want them back, dammit! Except I know nothing about that sort of thing and am terribly afraid of coming out with some unnatural color because the stylist screwed up.

I'm also tired of the style, though, and that is more of a hurdle. I've had basically the same hair style since high school, with one or two brief attempts to grow it out in college, more out of laziness than anything else. I've sort of ended up there by default, because my hair is very fine and has zero body to it, so anything past my shoulders tends to hang limply and staunchly resist any and all curling efforts. Unless I don't blow dry it, in which case I get a weird, uneven sideways wave that looks like I slept on it. :(

This is basically what it looks like now, on a good day:



I've made some progress with products in the last few years, but my hair has oddly changed dramatically, and I don't know what to do with it. I used to have oily hair. Like, so oily that I could not go a day without washing it, or it would get grimy and stringy and gross. I couldn't even hide it in a ponytail, it was so bad. I had to school myself not to touch my hair because running my hands through it too much made it worse. And now it's the complete opposite. I never used conditioner before, but lately I've started using it every day because my hair is so dry, and the last time I went to get my hair cut, the stylist actually mentioned how dry it was. (When I mentioned it to my mom this weekend, her response was: "Weird. That didn't happen to me until menopause." Me: "Well, I think we can rule THAT out.") It's probably one of the gazillion medicines I'm on that's messing with my body chemistry, but it's kind of throwing me for a loop in terms of styling.

Anyway, I'm weirdly conflicted as to whether I want to go longer or shorter. Ideally, I would have long hair with wavy/loose curls - like this, basically, because Erin Karpluk is PERFECTION - but if there are products out there to make my hair do that, I don't know what they are. So, barring any revelations on styling, I'm thinking of maybe going super short. Like Carey Mulligan short? Except, of course, that Carey Mulligan is the adorablest thing that ever adorabled, so she could make any hair cut look good. I don't know. I am so, SO hesitant about doing anything to my hair, because I've had my share of disastrous hair cuts, and I am always afraid they're going to do something awful to it. (This is exacerbated by the fact that I no longer have a regular stylist.)

The other conflict I have is that I want low-maintenance hair. I don't want to spend an hour curling my hair in the morning, but it seems that my hair, refusing as it does to dry normally, requires significant attention if I don't want to look like I just rolled out of bed (and not the cute, messy-on-purpose bedhead). Right now I spend a good 15 minutes on it and it's about 50/50 whether it'll look nice or not on any given day, lol.

The final obstacle is, of course, that I am kind of appalled at the idea of spending more than $30 on my hair, lol. Which is why I go to Hair Cuttery and have continued to put off the plunge into the world of colors, because it really adds up to maintain it. But since I am always so nervous about stylists, I'm kind of thinking I should go to a really good salon, at least for the first one, so I know they're professionals who won't screw it up. And I've gotten a couple recommendations, but... they're absurdly expensive.

Thoughts? Advice? Do I worry too much? Why can't I make personal decisions without outside validation?? (That last one is perhaps a question for my therapist, not you guys.)

Comments

[deird1]

Pretty! Pretty Eowyn is pretty! Prettyprettypretty...

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Hahaha, thanks! Should I take that to mean I should leave it alone? :)

[eilowyn1]

I can see you going shorter with your face shape, but Carey Mulligan short is short. Maybe try some sort of bob first before you take the plunge? And spending more than $30 on your hair is worth it every now and again if you have the money.

[urania_calliope]

This is good advice. You do have a pointed face which is a lucky thing to have if you want short hair. I have a very round face so I can't have my hair too short or the round face + short hair = super rounded-looking head.

$30 for your first experience is a good thing. Better to try something coming from a pro and then nitpick from that then a cheap disaster that scares you away from EVER playing with your hair again!

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Better to try something coming from a pro and then nitpick from that then a cheap disaster that scares you away from EVER playing with your hair again!

Heh, yeah, that was my thinking. I just hate splurging on myself, even when I should. :-P

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Hmm, but a bob has kinda been my go-to hair cut for a while now. It's grown out some, but this is what it looked like right after I got it cut:



There's not much in between this and short, lol.

[ever_neutral]

HEY! YOU HAVE A FACE! *squishes you*

Hahahaha, I have no idea about hair things, man. I like the idea of reddish highlights, though. Because then we'll both have red-streaked dark hair! Except my hair's black. But same diff.

[next_to_normal]

I do indeed have a face! (And all the other parts, too!)

Hee, we could match. Although I want more natural looking highlights, less streaky.

[larabeckinsale]

Oh, lovely!

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Thanks! So you like it as is? lol

[larabeckinsale]

I think it looks cute now.

As sexy as long hair is, it's awfully high maintenance. I have hair that after I hit puberty became wavy (when in my childhood was super straight) and I had it super long for a while and it was a pain to maintain and tend to get very dry. The only plus side was that because it was so long, it was heavy and it had less body. Then I cut it and all I was left with super body hair (which for me is not that cool 'cause I look like a lion, my hair is on the really thick side).

So, drawing from my experience I'd say if you really want to make a change and you want more body to your hair and low maintainance, shorter is the way to go. I like the Mulligan's haircut actually. You have a lovely oval shaped face, it would look good on you.

But I think this one time, you need to go to a really good salon to be safe 'cause it's a dramatic change and you wouldn't want to make it into a traumatic experience too. I think this once, spoil yourself! :D

[gabrielleabelle]

PICTURE! YOU!!!

You're gorgeous, sweetie!

Okay, that out of the way, I think splurging on your hair every once in a while can be nice. Go somewhere fancy and get an expensive cut. Then you can go to a cheapo place to maintain it.

I've done both long and short cuts in the past, and they both have their issues. Short cuts can take a whole lot of styling to look decent, especially if your hair's fine. I usually give the heads up to the stylist that I'm very stupid when it comes to hair and I don't want something that takes a lot of effort to style. That gives them a guidelines of what not to do. Once you get a short style, you might have to spend a few days of trial and error to figure out how to make it look decent. And I'm not talking styling so much as when to shower, whether the hair looks best freshly dried or fresh out of bed, that sort of stuff. Hair can be finicky.

I usually enjoy shorter hair than long hair, though, cause I think it suits me better. You have the right type of face for either, so you have room to play around.

Also, highlights would be LOVE. I adore red highlights on brown hair! I'm still working on growing my old dye out so I can start fresh with the coloring, but I'm thinking of doing something like that with mine.

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Aww, thanks, babe!

I have found that short cuts take a lot of styling to look decent on me, but long hair is pretty much impossible to make it look decent, so I've always defaulted closer to short. But now I'm bored with that. I have too much hair envy, lol.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

The geek in me is saying that you should find pictures of celebrities with hair you like facing directly at the camera, then Photoshop your own face on top of theirs, and see whether you like the look. :-)

Also, what Mez said.

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We must be kindred spirits, lol, because that's basically what I've done. Except I used a makeover website instead of Photoshop. :) I'll have to post the results.

Thanks! :)

[mcmegan]

I'm no good when it comes to hair. But my long hair (which I don't think is really super long, but hair places charge me extra anyway) will sometimes get caught in my car door/window. And I'm lazy styling it, so I let it air dry for a while, then blowdry, then flat iron because it's frizzy and weird. I'm ready to chop it all off next haircut. I agree with someone up there who said try a bob first. Then there won't be panic if you realize you don't want your hair really short, since you didn't go all super short all at once.
Ha, I like your dad's advice about a hat.

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Aww, I like your long hair! It's all straight and swishy. And I like long hair because there's more you can do with it.

I actually own a flat iron and never use it because I am apparently even lazier than you, lol. I think I also own a curling iron and possibly other things I've never used...