a week to decide

my apologies to those who thought i was getting my hair cut this week.  if you were reading fast, you might have missed that i said next week. specifically, my appointment is on the 20th!  so i still have about a week to decide what exactly i want my hair cut to look like.  (and then we'll see if the stylist--and my hair--can do what i want!)

i also asked my Facebook friends to check out my last post and requested their input/advice.  {thanks to all who responded!}

here's the "voting" results so far.  {i'm still open to suggestions!}

two friends suggested i cut off enough to be able to donate it to Locks of Love. (i still have to figure out if hennaed hair is accepted.)  i'm not sure i want to go that short again anyways.

two friends like hair style #1 (selena gomez's long, layered look with side-swept bangs) but another friend cautioned that long bangs like that might be annoying if they tend to fall in front of my eyes {she also mentioned that it could be easily remedied by cutting them shorter.}

one friend likes hair style #3.  another likes style #2.  (both are mandy moore styles...similarly layered cuts with slightly different bangs) but another friend thought my hair might be too straight to actually get the same look.  

another friend mentioned that she liked my hair in my maui luau photo and thought the addition of bangs would look cute.

and finally, a friend who recently watched the movie "Fireproof" recommended i check out the hairstyle of the character Catherine Holt, played by Erin Bethea.  it's another very similar style--layered, with side-swept bangs. 

i'm so glad i have some time to really think about this!

i thought it might be fun to look through the hairstyles i've had in the past few years.  so here we go...

june 2006

also june 2006, after cutting off enough to donate to Locks of Love.  this one was an ugh! style for me.  it looked nice from the back, but didn't frame my face properly. 

                   

thankfully, my hair tends to grow quickly and by november it already wasn't quite so bad.

 i think it even looks nice in this photo, but it's a tad shorter than i like.

by 2008, my hair had grown out.  (here's the maui luau photo mentioned earlier)

 this photo from the same trip shows the length a little better.

well, as you can see, i haven't had bangs for quite some time.  in fact, i think it's been about 8 years--give or take a year or two.  {i'd have to dig out my older photos to find out for sure!}  there have been times when i liked them, and others when i hated having 'em.  i think that's going to be the hardest part of the whole hair style decision.

bangs?  or no bangs?  what do you think?

lookin' for a new look

in other words, i'm sick of my hair. 

it comes down to this:

long & straight = simple & BORING 

i know some people may be shocked to hear me say this since i haven't changed my hair much for the past couple years {at least!}, but after a while, long hair like mine just gets in the way.  perhaps if i could be creative with my hair styles it wouldn't be so bad.  but i can't even braid my own hair and have it look nice.  also, the length makes it rather heavy and the straightness makes it slippery so it won't even stay up in a bun or ponytail very well anymore.

i've been thinking about this for at least a month.  i really just need a change.  so i made an appointment with a hairstylist {who i know from church} for next week.  thursday.  i'm so excited!  i haven't had my hair cut {except an occasional trim} for a couple years! 

so i'm thinking layers.  and a bit shorter, but it'll still probably be longish since my hubby likes it long and i do want him to be happy with it too!  maybe i'll even be adventuresome and get bangs cut while i'm at it.   i haven't had bangs in years. 

it's been kind of fun to look for a new style and see what's trendy for spring and summer 2010.  {not that i ever intend to claim trendiness! lol!}

after much online-hair-style-hair-cut-trendy-website browsing, i've found a few celeb styles that i think i like.  but i'm not sure what would look good on me.  

examples of styles i like:  

1. selena

2. mandy

3. mandy

i like the longer length of selena's hair, and the layers look nice.  and the side-swept bangs are really pretty.  i also like mandy's many layers but i'm not sure about the bangs in #2.  however, i like the fact that mandy's hair style seems easy to care for and appears to be somewhat versatile.

what do you think?  

i'd love to get a little "hair advice" before my hair cut next week.  so leave me a comment and let me know what YOU think i should do.  and if there's another hair style that you think might be better for my low-maintenance, but not-too-short preferences, i'm open to any {good} suggestions!

thanks!

heavenly henna part 2

here's my second attempt at henna body art.
this time my feet have a tropical hibiscus flower theme!

all i can say is i'm definitely not a good candidate for "real" or "permanent" tattoos because it wouldn't be long before i'd be wishing i'd have done something different. or didn't have it at all. so i'm glad i never succumbed to the temptation when i considered getting a tat back in my crazy college days. but on the other hand, i wish i HAD learned about henna art a lot sooner! i could have been a professional henna artist, i just didn't know it! well, maybe there's still hope for that...like when i move to hawaii! {yeah, right.} ah well!


and before i sign off, here's a picture of my hair after the color settled. it's a lovely shade of auburn most of the time. sunlight shows the red off even more, of course. but that's what henna does.

see T. see me.
see me with red hair.
me likes T.
me likes red hair!
{and yes, me is silly!}

heavenly henna

i've been slowly gravitating to more natural alternatives. fewer harsh chemicals is good to my way of thinking! i've recently purchased a couple of sulfate and paraben-free shampoos and conditioners to try. they work great, smell good, and my hubby doesn't have any allergic reaction to the natural fragrances (a definite plus!) i'm especially thrilled that wal-mart is selling these more natural products now! i use baking soda instead of bleach to remove stains from my countertops and sink. i prefer organic foods, but find it hard to find good quality organic here at a decent price. our feeble attempts at gardening helps a little too. and so i continue in my quest of learning more ways to reduce my own (& my family's) exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

for the past few years, i had been occasionally using do-it-yourself 'permanent' hair dyes to change my hair color and/or cover the few white hairs that have invaded my normally medium-brown tresses. however, i've never been 100% comfortable or happy with using chemical-based hair dyes. first of all, they smell awful. they also don't always cover my gray hairs well. and to top it off, it is necessary to use them about every 6 weeks in order to keep my roots from showing. ugh! that's expensive!!!! i'm much too frugal to go to a salon for hair colorings, so i can only imagine how pricey it can be.

anyways, one of my friends from college blogged about henna-ing her hair a few months ago. that was yet another nudge in the chemical-free direction for me! i already knew that henna is a plant that can be ground up and used to color hair a reddish color. i remembered using a henna-based hair color a couple times when i was in college. but where would i get henna now? we live in a relatively small town and there are no large cities nearby where specialty items like this can be easily found, so i'm pretty much forced to look for an online source for anything even remotely unusual. henna definitely falls into the "unusual" category! so i began to research. and boy have i learned a lot! if you're interested, here is a site with a lot of great info--there's even info about the science of how henna works! eventually, i purchased some henna and indigo powders (indigo is another plant used for its dye) that seemed to be good quality from a seller on ebay. i did a couple tests with these, in different combination, on hairs harvested from my hairbrush. (i surely didn't want to end up with green hair!) my test results were good. the henna and indigo seemed to work fine. so it was finally time to use it on my hair!

i finally decided to go with a combination of henna and indigo. indigo is used to create anywhere from deep auburn to black colored hair depending on how much you use and how you apply it. for my hair i used 3 parts henna and 1 part indigo. next time i will probably try 2 parts henna and 1 part indigo for a little more brown/less red color. i added some cinnamon powder to help with the smell. it really didn't help though!

the smell of henna is very different from the nasty nose-burning ammonia and peroxide fumes of chemical dyes. it's earthy. very earthy. but it still has a pretty strong odor. and since you leave it in your hair for a few hours, it can get kind of annoying. the above-mentioned friend of mine says it smells like caterpillar poop. with the indigo added, i think it smells even worse than that! but it's a natural dead plant kind of stink, not a chemical one. so i can deal with it. also, my hubby, who has an extremely sensitive sense of smell said {after i had rinsed it out} that it's not as bad as the hair dyes i've used in the past!

here are my before and after pics!

BEFORE:

as you can see, i already have a lot of red 'highlights' from using chemical hair dyes.

roots are quite a bit darker with a few white hairs hiding in there.

AFTER:

the lighting isn't the best for these pics, but you can see

the red is deeper now and my roots are blended in nicely.
i understand that the color will darken/deepen over the next few days.

my hair is more of an auburn in real life. the pictures aren't the best for showing it off. in a couple days when the color has 'settled' i'll try taking some more pics.

the other thing henna is used for is body art. i suppose it was inevitable with all the pretty pictures i saw of gorgeous hennaed hands and feet that i would have to try it myself. :-)

not too bad for a first try!

i practiced henna design elements for a few days with pen and paper. it was such a good feeling drawing again! i can't believe how long it has been since i've done anything like this. and i'm so glad to have found a new artistic outlet! it was interesting watching the henna stain change. as you can see in the pics, it was really orange-ish at first, but darkened within a day to brown. now it's a lovely dark brazil nut brown. i expect it to last at least a week, maybe longer. it's not nearly as intricate in design as most of what i saw pictured on henna artists' webpages, but i like how it turned out and that's what matters to me!

the funniest part of having this henna body art is seeing what kinds of reactions i get. *wicked grin* i do enjoy shocking people once in a while! and for those folks who don't know about henna, it's fun to enlighten them a little about this wonderful plant God created that can be used to enhance one's beauty in so many ways!