Hair today: A darker color and some layers

I've been in a pretty deep hair rut. Seriously, I've had the same hair for about ten years. And it was the same for another ten years before that except I had bangs. I'm a sort of cheapskate on hair: I spend a lot on cut and color, but I don't go very often. I think it has more to do with sitting still in a chair for more than ten minutes, the salon not really being my scene. And heaven knows I would be happier spending less money (after all, I could spend it on other things).

So I went in with a bold request: To begin the path back to my natural hair color. Not that we're totally sure what that it. When I was a kid through my teenage years growing up in a southern California beach town, it was naturally blonde,* although a lot of that was the result of time in the sun and water. The roots are sort of brown, but hair that grows out lightens up pretty easily. So maybe we're talking light brown. Or dark blonde. What I want to avoid is mouse.

Could Daniel, my super-adorable hair god, do that?

Why, yes, he said, he could. Did he think it was a good idea? Yes, now that I mentioned it, it was. He thought it would be a little softer, which is his tactful way of saying it would look better and be more appropriate for a woman of my age rather than continually chasing my high school hair color. All true. And, he noted, I have no grey (yet), which was nice of him to say. You can see why I like him so much. So he added to the highlights some lowlights (three pots of color!), which is to say he lightened the top a little and darkened the bottom. We're planning on going a little darker each time, with some highlights remaining, until I cry stop. Unfortunately, it ended up costing more, which was a lot because he did color work on the whole shebang, not just the roots. Oh well. At some point it will mean that I spend less on color.

I liked the way the color turned out, and since I was feeling so bold I asked for some long layers in the bottom. He said I could have them. (He doesn't let people have just anything. I noted to him that bangs seem to be coming back and asked whether I should consider bangs. He said "No, you cannot have bangs." End of that discussion.)

So here's what we ended up with:

 He also sold me some of this in response to my complaint that a friend said to me at a party a few weeks ago "What's with the fuzzy hair?" Can you believe someone said that to me? Good thing I love her a lot. If I love you, you can say almost anything to me. 

I like it. You can use it with wet or dry hair, and it doesn't make it stiff or gooey. And it smells nice. And moisturizes my hair.

So ends my first and probably last beauty blog post. Back soon to food, where at least I have some idea what I'm talking about.

* Blogger's spell check incorrectly flags this spelling as wrong. Webster's 11th specifies blond when used of a boy or man and blonde when used of a girl or woman. I think that's a nice difference. It doesn't seem there are many like that.