I Enter My Blue Period

Normalcy has never really been my thing. I’ve always been just a little left of center. My mom calls me a free spirit. My sister says I’m weird. I think both things are probably true. 

The good news is that I’ve reached a point in my life where I don’t actually care what people think about me. I mean, I definitely want to be respected by my colleagues, peers, and students but that doesn’t mean they have to think I’m cool or anything like that. This isn’t high school. The important thing is that I like me. And I mostly do. Except for my hair. It was really bumming me out. I’ve had the same-ish hairstyle for a long time and I wanted to shake it up. But I know that bangs look lousy on me and I have a fear of pixie cuts ever since I got one in fifth grade and a substitute gym teacher told me that I was doing push ups like a girl (shout out to Dustin who indignantly told the teacher “She is a girl!” when I was too mortified to speak).

But I digress. I wasn’t going to cut my hair off. So what was left? COLOR! 

I’ve been dying my hair various shades of red for most of my life, save for a brief period in the mid-2000s when I rocked chunky blonde highlights like literally every other girl on the planet. Red works for me. My current shade leans more toward burgundy than traditional red, but I’ve been wearing it for so long that it kind of is traditional for me. You know what isn’t? BLUE. Oh, yeah. It was time to explore the unnatural colors.

My friends Loni and Evie are masters at coloring their hair all sorts of fun shades. Evie has even been a unicorn before. So I reached out to them for help. The advised getting some bleach from Sally’s Beauty Supply so I could lighten my hair and the blue would really pop.

I was a little worried about bleaching my own hair. I’ve heard horror stories of people’s hair breaking off or burning and I did not want that to happen. So I made sure to follow the directions on the package exactly. 

I set timers, I kept checking on my hair, I was extra super cautious. 

And I got less than desirable results. 

See a difference? Yeah, me either. 

But I was determined. I wanted blue hair and I was going to get it! I purchased a bottle of Manic Panic dye because 90s nostalgia is real and I had done a lot of research on it. I knew it was a vegan, non-chemical dye and the folks on the internet recommended leaving it on for a loooong time. So I applied it to my desired strands and proceeded to go about my day. And when I say that I mean I left the damn stuff on for TWO HOURS. I was expecting something glorious! I was expecting to be a peacock! 

Instead I got…

Yeah. There was more blue on my shirt than there was on my hair. 

Was I disappointed? Sure. But here’s the thing: there are many things I’m good at. I’m a good librarian. I’m a decent writer. Need someone to regale you with Simpsons quotes or Nightmare on Elm Street trivia? I’m your girl! But maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t be trusted to do my own hair. Luckily, there are people who are professionals at doing hair. They’ve studied, they’ve trained, their artists. And, even luckier, I know one!

Jen Joseph has been cutting my hair for ten years and I’m super grateful that she didn’t laugh even a little when I told her my tale of woe. Just agreed that bleaching your own hair is hard and it’s good to have a professional do things like this. Then she got to work.

The whole process took about 2 hours. And can I say? It was two hours incredibly well spent. Check out these results!

Courtesy of Jen's instagram:

I am DELIGHTED with my new look! My husband isn’t a huge fan and my mother and sister responded with “Wow, that’s really...blue.” But Dobby is a free elf. And this free elf really likes her pop of color. And don’t worry, I learned my lesson. Jen showed me how to do the upkeep for the blue at home, but when it comes to bleaching I’m going to let a professional handle things from now on.