And Dude! I've got a lot of hair! *LOL* I untwisted the twisties (cuz they were starting to get fuzzy after a week of sleeping/wetting/scarfing them, and I've got just like - hair EVERYWHERE. I didn't expect it to be so, so - expansive. It's like - POOOF. It's still soooo dry though - Ah! I need to go to the Beauty Supply spot and - ah! Sears should have a good toolkit if I can't get one at the local hardware store - but I need to go to the Beauty Supply store and get some moisturizer for my hair.
And maybe a deep conditioner too....cuz my hair is PARCHED from the chemical fandango I put it through. Thankfully, because the locs actually DID protect the ends of my hair, this head of hair is most likely the healthiest I've ever had - I don't have a SINGLE split end - and I want to keep it that way. *scratches head* It's so cool to have hair again. Remind me of this when I start bitching about it in about a month or two.

I'd now like to show ya'll some pictures that demonstrate the amazing transformation that is part and parcel of becoming a homeowner and moving within the same week. Now - to let ya'll know - when I'm stressed, I pick apart my locs. And every May - without fail - I do something radical to my hair.

So.

Before moving - looking like who did what, and Why, dear gods, WHY????!!??

After the move - looking like gravy that belongs on a biscuit (okay, I'm picking up WAAAYYY too many southernisms)

Rowr!

a) No, I actually didn't cut any off - as I picked apart my locs, I realized that MOST of the length was old shed, dead hair - which I suspect is why my locs lost all their luster.
b) It's red. RED. I was blond for a second, as that is the only way I can ever really get RED hair - but year, it's - RED. I need to shampoo it this weekend and see if it needs an extra batch of dye. My hair is strong, stuborrn, and very chemical resistant.

My hair is in a STATE to say the least. I need to do wash it and do my roots so badly it's a dangoone SHAME!! As locks mature, they tend to get skinnier - but as they get skinner, the fact that there is 'loose' hair at the roots becomes more obvious - and boy, is it obvious right about now.

My hair is - dense - thick - almost rich - it feels most alive when the little bits at the bottom are running wild. That's why I don't really want to tighten it - or more accurately, a wonderfully subconsious reason I keep 'forgetting' to do it over the weekend. Freshly tightened hair is - lovely - in it's own very regimented way - but nappy hair feels so much more ALIVE. *grins* I could almost convince myself that it is.

I've heard that the legend of Medusa actually came from when the Greeks stumbled a bit deeper into Africa than they expected, and ran across a tribe of locked women - and I can understand why they thought there werre snakes growing from their heads. 'Organic' locs - as in hair that just allowed to tangle all about itself without any 'management' - is rarely neat looking, never corporate, and looks (and feels!) like a living thing.

So, I finally did it.....

after 4 years, and 11 months.......










I cut my hair. Yup. Got sick of it last night, picked up the scissors and a scrunchy, and had a clip fest in the bathroom. Really, I didn't CUT it - it was more of a trim. My hair - well, some of it at least, was longer than shoulder length, but not all of it was - it was a lil choppy - had some really LONG bits, and some really short bits and - it just looked - eh. So - I trimmed off all of the really LONG bits, left the medium to short bits alone, and now - wow. Can I jsut say - wow? What the hell made me wait for so long???!!!??? It's rather like how freaked out I was before I went blond, and then afterwards, I was like - ahhhh - that actually looks REALLLLY sweet. I'd totally lost my 'fear' of being blond.

Now - I've been shed of my fear of cutting my hair. It looks SWEET. Really. It's about midway between chin and shoulder, I've got natural funky little bangs in front, and the whole thing looks more like a - planned arrangement of hair rather than a collection of straggly bits. I also tightened up the roots in front, so the bangs are being difficult and want to keep falling into my eyes - but damn. I'm SERIOUSLY thrilled.

In other hair news - I'm almost fully blond now. It's - a varied blond - honey brown in some places, golden blond in other places, with dark brown roots, and tiny bits of dark brown peeping out from the middle of some of my locks where the bleach didn't get to. It SOUNDS - trashy looking, but it really works well on me. *blinks* I'm so hot. :) And I'm wearing what may be the funkiest top on the face of of the earth - soft and flowing with the sexy sleeve cutouts in black and turqouise and brown bottomed off with the long black skirt - I should have worn my hot girl boots today too, but I still refuse to accept the fact that it's FALL weather, period.

I even put on a little makeup this morning - I'm really feeling purdy.

fresh as a copper penny

Also - I've figured out what color my hair is. I kept wanting to think "Is it too orange? I think it's orange. Nah, it's not orange! but - it's not red, it's not blond, it's not brown". Finally, after looking at it in the sun, I've figure it out. My hair is copper. Almost like a freshminted penny, but darker. I'll admit - the roots are a wee bit orangy *sigh* but on the whole, it's copper. I like it. More and more, I like it. Give my hair a week or two for the roots to grow out a little more, and I'll most likely lurve it.

So, the hair's dried, and it's a weee bit lighter/brighter than it was yesterday. I think I like it, but I'm still not totally sure - I think it might be more WHOA! shock that I haven't gotten used to it yet - but I have to admit it looks very - funky. *grin* And that's funky in a good way - I just need somebody to look at me and say - yeah, that looks good. Someone I can trust - who's up for Maggies tonight??? *LOL* The hubby likes it - but he's a GUY! We all know he doesn't count. ;) But seriously - I LIKE it. It's jsut weird. *LOL* Like me, I guess. Now I wanna cut it - the color (to me) seems to highlight the funky 'layers' my hair has - and because the dying contracts my locs and makes them tighter (and skinnier) it's - just - different. but not BAD! *grin* yes, yes, I'm flipfloping. I'll take another picture tonight in the sun since it's dry....post it and see what ya'll think!

Okay.... so my hair is done! There was a scary moment in their for a second - but that was swiftly repaired this morning.

So - here is me with freshly tighted up hair (see how dark my roots are):

Now - the first thing I have to do, is bleach my hair (as I've tried to dye red on my natural hair and I end up with NOTHING!) So - I mix up a double serving of Manic Panic's Bleaching kit, and tossed it in my hair. I had snipped a loc from right above my rear hairline, and had tested it in the bleach so that I could be sure about how long it would take...I figured something along the lines of 90 minutes, based on the test loc.
Here I am, AFTER the bleach job:

Can I TELLL you how much I loved the blond??? Oh my god - my hair is DEFINITELY going to go blond at some point - HOT I'm telling you!! But..... I wanted to go for red this time.....so - I took the next step of dying. Now, for some dumb ass reason (I think it was beause I liked the blond so much, I didn't want to go TOOO red) I mixed the hiar dye together in different proportions for my hair than I had used on the test lock (which came out GOREGOUS). I also made the mistake of not leaving the dye on long enough (another straying from the test loc) and washed the dye out of my hair. I could IMMEADIATELY tell my hair was pink. I'm talking - it was a pale pretty pink - the red had just not been on long enough to REALLY take. I went 'EEEEKKKKKKKK!' ran downstairs, mixed up the remaining red hair dye, and sat my ass down for 90 more mintues with that on my hair. I rinsed it out - and while it was still kinda pale, it wasn't OBVIOUSLY pink, so - I figured I'd live with that for the night, and get another box of red hair dye Sunday morning.

This is me Sunday Morning:

Kinda hard to tell here, but my hair is still pretty pale - goldenpale under the red enough that it looks like a off dye job rather than a semi-natural color of hair.

I used a box of Feria in the red color that I wanted, mixed it up, left it on for MY usual 90 minutes, washed it out, conditoned it with their stuff, and ended up with this:

which I LOVE!! This picture was taken while it was still wet - it's got all ofthe gorgeous little golden blond strands going through it - I can't WAIT to see how it lightens up in the sun.

So....all together, I went from this to this:

Which, now that I look at them side by side, is more or less EXACTLY what I wanted - a rich red with blond highlight (I can't wait to see what colors the tips are going to turn - I think that the red is going to fade out and I'll have blond tips) AND - it's dark enough that as my roots grow out, it won't be toooo noticable.

*sigh* Now, it I can just figure out how to give my hair some volume (maybe I'll braid it before it completely dries) I'd be SET.

P.S. - This is dedicated to everyone who asked where I was in the picture request section - my hair was too icky to take pictures of......