BEAUTY LESSON LEARNED: Some TRENDS don't work for everyone.

This is a tale of my transition to long hair and the ombre look.

If you're interested...read on...


I chopped all my hair off in January of 2008. I had grown it and kept it long since I was 20 years old and after college really felt a need for a most sophisticated, grown up look. I definitely achieved it with my cropped bob and really enjoyed it. What I enjoyed was it was so much easier to style and it forced me to style my hair everyday.

My 25th Birthday

As of 2010 I decided to grow it back out. I really did start to miss my long hair. I was so sick of not being able to put a pony tail in my hair for long runs or being completely unable to get my hair out of my face easier. One of the other main reasons I decided to grow it was to finally get an ombre' look done to it.

The ombre' was this cool trend that became bigger about 2ish years ago. It basically is meant to look like your hair goes from dark roots to gradually getting lighter at the tips. I thought this was SUCH a great look and couldn't wait to reach my goal of long hair to achieve it.

CHECK IT OUT!

I imagined my hair would look like the pictures above daily and that I'd take really great care of it and I couldn't wait. Finally in June of this year my hair had become long enough to take the plunge and make my hair look more two-toned. It took several hours in the salon and much anticipation before I was able to see my styled new coif.

TA-DA!!!

I was immediately in love with my hair again. After all the awkward transitions of growing my hair out and cutting it regularly over 2 years, I was finally happy again with the look of my hair. Hooray!

Well, little did I know that summer 2012 was going to be crazy HOT in the Chicago-land area. Come mid July I noticed the light ends of my hair becoming washed out, blonder, weaker and upset with me. What to do!? It really bothered me. I went it to my favorite salon in town and had it re-toned (i.e.-re-coloring of the bleached part of my hair) which I learned then seals the cuticle of your hair. I was warned to stay out of chlorine filled pools and sunlight to avoid more damage to my hair. I also learned that when you put bleach in your hair you really are breaking down and weakening your hair. I was mad at myself. Why did I do this to my long hair?! I knew how thin my hair was and now I just put it through torture just to be cool. I felt like I needed to write my hair an apologize. Ha ha!

All jokes aside as of August I had had enough. I feel like I deep condition my hair every other day. My roots are so healthy and I haven't seen my natural hair color look so healthy in years and then literally the other day a light bulb went off--

I need to stop coloring my hair for awhile. I need to NEVER put bleach on my hair again. How could something so obvious take so long to learn you say? Well, naturally when I got in the habit of coloring my hair a few years ago and trying different hues and styles it became habit and something fun to look forward too. Who doesn't love mini make-overs from time to time to spruce their look up.

To conclude my so called "hair evolution" I have learned something important here. Some trends aren't meant for everyone to try.

For example, my sister also had the ombre' look done this year. The main difference between her hair and mine is simple. She literally has the most beautiful, thick, gorgeous hair in the world and mine just can't complete, nor handle this look and that is ok. So SHOUT-OUT to my sister, Corie, for being able to achieve this look and rocking it daily without the drama I have to deal with! YAY!

Here are some pictures of what an ombre' on AWESOME hair looks like:

Check out that GORGEOUS hair!

Sissy's enjoying summer!

Hope you enjoyed reading my tale/blog! As of next week I will be cutting my hair to help the healthiness of my hair return. Some trends are just not meant for me and that's ok! At least I tried! :)