my hair journey

In 2011 I started changing my hair.

 I am a natural red head and was always teased for being a ginger and at the time I absolutely hated my hair. I always got compliments on my hair from older people and I never understood it. I wanted something different. 

I always got highlights but it was just a tint of a difference. Not enough.

One of my friends at the time had some bleach at her house and we decided to put some on my hair so the bottom half would be blonde and the top half would be red. But of course she didnt know what she was doing and it didnt turn out perfect. it was really spotty and terrible looking.. I decided to go to a hair dresser and pay to have it fixed. When it was finished it looked better but not perfect. there were still red spots in it which I hated. oh well.

A little time goes by and I decided to chop my long hair off (it wasnt too long it was a couple inches below the shoulder) I got a short look that came just below my chin and was kind of choppy and pretty cute. But it was such a huge change I started to hate it and miss my old hair:( 

After a couple months it started to get longer and I decided to basically get so many highlights its basically blonde with red highlights. This happened in december of 2011.

Basically every time I needed a retouch id get more blonde and I was all blonde in no time.

Now all of this bleaching is definitely not any good for my hair but I continued to do it and continued to straighten it all the time, never using a heat protectant and killing it slowly.

I got bored with it and decided to put a pink streak in it just in the front like where Christina Perri has her blonde. Mind you my school doesnt allow unnatural colors. But for some reason I didnt think about it or maybe I just didnt care. 

Weirdly no one at school said anything about it. I did get a few comments from teachers saying they liked it but thats it. I think the teachers liked me.

I get bored again and decide I want to go a deep red like Ariana Grande and go to a salon and come out of the salon with a deep brown with a bit of red. The red only showed up when I was in the sun. I was ok with it. 

Now since I started with red hair and now im a brunette my eyebrows dont match and I look like I have no eyebrows. So I go to the salon and get them tinted a deep brown. And they look great.

I kept that for a bit and then got bored again. I think its about march now. by this time my hair has faded and isnt such a strong brown.

I decide I want to dye my hair bright pink. Completely disregarding the rules at school. I go out and grab two boxes of Splat hair color and slap it on. 

I was it out and it AMAZING. It is the perfect pink color. Its a deep pink. Just what I wanted! (I have no pictures which is strange because I was obsessed with taking pictures at the time... strange)

I have bright pink hair and im going to school and work and everything and not one person says anything about how I cant have BRIGHT PINK hair at school. 

After awhile i decided to change it up a lot and i go from a pretty purple brown to a auburn and back. 

Its now september (my hair is shoulder length now, dying and bleaching so much stunts growth and i did get a couple trims) and Im starting cosmetology school at Paul Mitchell. 

I keep my hair for about 2 weeks and I start looking at my old pictures with my long red hair and I compare them to my hair now and I think to myself "what the heck did I do???" so I talk to my teacher and ask her what I can do to get it back to my natural and she kept going on and on about how it was impossible and how id just have to grow it out.

I was not happy with this answer at all.. 

So I decided to figure it out myself.

I go to walgreens and get a box called L'Oreal hair color remover. I slap it on and rinse it out. 

mind you it takes awhile and smells terrible. I tried splat's color oops before aswell. Both work pretty well. 

I do this twice because once wasnt enough and my hair is back to blonde. Its super fluffy and frizzy because its so damaged. I also grabbed a box of the lightest natural red hair dye I could find it was basically a strawberry blonde color and I slap it on and rinse it out and my hair is basically back to normal!!!!! 

YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

I felt pretty great and walked into school and just thought "HA look what I did! you said it couldnt be done!"  

By this time my hair was dead. But it was the color I wanted. 

My hair used to be so nice and soft and now it was extremely dry and brittle. 

I decided to never dye it again and grow it out and slowly cut off all the dead and get back to my old self. 

Now its 2014 I'm graduated from school and I have my license. My hair is finally long just reaching the middle of my back. Its pretty and red and basically all the dead is off. I trim my split ends off  myself about every month or so. I am absolutely obsessed with deep conditioners and treatments. always trying something new and keeping my hair healthy.

In the summer of 2013 I decided to try to stop using heat and braided my hair and let it air dry it definitely helped it grow and get back to normal. 

I did all of those things to my hair in a year. I cant even tell you how many times I changed the color because I dont even remember. 

I've gone through a lot of changes in my life.

But my hair change I definitely regretted after awhile.

Learn to love yourself for how you are.

Change can be good.

But dont change too much and lose yourself.

jclove

<3