I haven’t done anything with my hair for awhile, and it’s definitely been getting on my nerves. My personal hair stylist also happens to be one of my best friends, Emily. She just had a baby on September 12 so I wasn’t sure if she’d be up to doing my hair yet, but I figured I’d ask. (I also wanted an excuse to come see her little boy.) I was so excited that she said yes!

Before I left, I took some pictures of my hair. This is the best one (it’s hard to take good pictures of yourself; at least it is for me):

My hair is straight, extremely fine, and doesn’t hold much of a curl. It’s always hard for me to pick a cut that I think will work with it and look good with my face shape. I also knew that I wanted to change the color. It’s fall now, time to darken it up!

I asked Emily to make it noticeably darker but not shockingly so. She did a great job interpreting my vague wishes, and even left some of my dark blonde in there to blend the new color.

Once my hair was colored and washed it was time for a cut. Emily mentioned to me that shoulder-length hair was in style, so I told her to go for that because I am nothing if not trendy. I also showed her an inspiration picture that I found by searching for celebrities that I think have my face shape and hair similar to mine, like Kate Bosworth and Cameron Diaz.

This was the final result:

Bad lighting, but you get the idea!

I like it! And what’s more important, so does David. In fact, he likes it so much that he told me he’s worried about me getting hit on all the time now. I asked him if that meant I wasn’t pretty before. He told me I was being ridiculous, but I thought it was a reasonable question. :)

Emily also gave me some tips on how to take care of my hair and style it. I’m horrible with this kind of stuff, so I soaked up her advice. She told me I really need to use a shampoo and conditioner for color-treated hair. Since I’m cheap, I asked her what brand to use that wasn’t “professional”. Her answer was anything by L’Oreal or TreSemme. Unfortunately, those brands don’t have color-treatment products (at least not at the store I was in) so I ended up buying a brand I know nothing about. Go me.

Infusium Colourologie

As for styling, she told me to put a little bit of gel in my hair when it’s damp, apply some uplifting foam to the roots on the crown of my head, and then blow-dry it using a round brush. That is something that I am very awkward at doing, but I guess it just takes practice.

Anyway! I’m very excited about my new hair. By the way, everyone should be so lucky to have a best friend who is also a licensed cosmetologist and an amazing one at that. If anyone out there has other tips for me about how to give my hair texture and body, including product recommendations, please send them my way. Currently my favorite style (other than ponytail) is to straighten my already-straight hair to make it look like I did it on purpose. I sort of fail at being a girl in this area, and I’m trying to remedy that!