Tag Archives: hair

Feeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting)

With so much going on lately, some of my regular “maintenance” things have been forgotten. I usually get my hair done pretty regularly but with everything keeping me busy I just kept putting off doing it. I’ve had some people make some comments about my hair not looking its best, so I realized that I needed to stop procrastinating and finally get my hair done.

I finally made an appointment with my friend who does my hair this past weekend and since I would be over there anyway I agreed to babysit as well. I’ve been watching her kids for forever so they are usually pretty good for me. And since it was going to pretty much just dinner, watch a movie, and then put the kids to bed; I knew it would be a pretty easy evening.

But before babysitting, I got my hair cut and colored. I’ve been getting it dyed red for a very long time now. I’d like to switch it up a little bit, but that also means getting new headshots. So we have to keep my hair in pretty much the same color family. But my friend was able to make it a bit more copper than it has been in the past, so while it’s still similar it’s a nice subtle change for me.

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I love when my hair is freshly dyed and looking so nice! If I could afford to get my hair dyed as soon as my roots are starting to show, I would do so. But for now, I’m usually getting it done every 3 months (I’m hoping to change that to every other month soon).

I always think it’s pretty funny that when I have my hair looking the best that I usually spend that night babysitting. But that’s how it goes when you babysit your hairstylist’s kids.

The babysitting job was relatively easy. Since the kids know me so well they sometimes try to pull an attitude with me, but nothing that bad (nothing compared to some families whose kids have hit me). Plus, when they pull an attitude with me my friend trusts me enough to handle it and call them out. So I don’t feel like I have to put up with her kids lying to me and arguing with me about things (usually about dumb things like how they claim they are allowed 4 different desserts).

But besides the kids trying to trick me into extra desserts, they were super well-behaved and went to bed without too much fighting. And once the kids were asleep, I spent the rest of the time there reading my book.

While I love being super social and busy, it’s also super nice to take care of myself and have time to read (and in an air-conditioned house!). While I didn’t get to take advantage of my awesome looking hair that night, it was fine with me.

At least I finally got my hair done and my roots and split ends taken care of and nobody will say that my hair is looking a little scraggly!

“Thriving In Hollywood” (or Celebrating The Ms. In The Biz Book Launch!)

I’ve been writing for Ms. In The Biz for a while now. It’s been so awesome to be a part of a blog that has so many amazing women with incredible stories and advice to share. And a little while back, Helenna (who created Ms. In The Biz) shared with all the writers that she was going to be putting together a book of some of the blog posts we had shared on the site!

The book is called “Thriving in Hollywood: Tenacious Tales and Tactics from Ms. In The Biz”. While none of my posts are featured in the book, I’m still super proud of all the writers who had pieces chosen for the book and that I get to be a part of the same blog!

This week was the official launch party for the book. There was going to be a red carpet and press there, so I decided that I really wanted to look my best.

After my morning workout, I showered and then headed over to The Dry Bar to get my hair done. I normally only go to The Dry Bar on my birthday, but the party was on my half birthday, so it seemed fitting.

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I had them do my hair in a similar style to how it was done in New York, but lots of curls. As soon as I was done getting my hair done, it was off to makeup!

My friend, Kayla, did my makeup for me. She also did my makeup for the Besame launch party so I knew it would be amazing.

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And when I was done getting beautified, I loved how I looked!

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While it feels like a lot of makeup to me since I rarely wear makeup, it just looked like an enhanced version of me. It was perfect!

For my outfit, I wanted to be comfortable because I knew that I would be on my feet all night. As much as I could love to have worn heels, it’s just not something that my hips can deal with now. So I went with leggings, a long sweater, and some cute flats.

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I know I look a little distorted in that photo. My mirror needs to be replaced because it can not longer hang correctly over a door.

I got to the party and my first stop was the red carpet. I wanted to make sure that my photos were done while my hair and makeup looked fresh.

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After doing my official photos, I wandered around and found a bunch of my friends. It was so much fun catching up with people when we are all dressed up! We don’t normally look like slobs, but everyone looked so fancy that night!

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After some catching up, I ran into other members of the team from the Inside Acting Podcast, including the hosts Trevor and AJ (who just got in from New York that morning!). So of course, we gathered for a podcast red carpet photo.

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Before I knew it, it was getting toward the end of the evening. I was exhausted and ready to get into my PJs and watch some TV.

The one thing about having fancy makeup done is that it takes quite a bit to get it all off.

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I was super happy to have my Spanx and fake lashes off and to have a bare face at the end of the night!

Overall, I have to say that this was a super successful book launch party! I had a blast and everyone else I talked to did so as well!

I highly encourage all of you to get a copy of “Thriving In Hollywood”! I’ve read it and it’s super amazing! And maybe the next time Ms. In The Biz does a book, one of my blog posts will be chosen!

Celebration Time! (or Ending My Dirty 30 Year)

I had decided to have my birthday party on the day before my birthday.

This was for a couple of reasons. First of all, at Bodega, they require a minimum tab for parties on Saturdays. I didn’t want to have to deal with that (everyone has to pay on 1 credit card so that’s annoying). Also, there were a few friends who didn’t know if they could make it at all, but if they could it would only be on Friday. Also, I wasn’t quite sure what I really wanted to do on my birthday day, so I wanted to leave that evening open.

My day started with my workout at Orangetheory. After doing that, I knew that I had burned off enough calories to enjoy a few drinks while I was out.

I had a little bit of time at home to get showered and dressed before I headed out to DryBar. I went to the same one I went to last year for my birthday, and it was a better experience than the year before. But I have to say that the DryBar in NYC was still way better!

I decided that I wanted to have curls in my hair for the evening. That seems festive to me and it’s something that I can’t really do on my own. While it was getting done, it looked pretty great and I was happy while I walked out the door.

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Sadly, the curls didn’t last even though the hair stylist used 2 rounds of hairspray (which I later hated because it made my hair impossible to brush). But my hair still looked better than anything that I could do on my own.

Next it was time to head over to Bodega. I was a little worried that not a lot of people would show up, but I went with the mindset that I would have a great time with whoever was there.

And I’m glad I went in with that mindset because only 3 people could make it. Lots of other people wanted to come but had work/traffic/lack of money/lack of time issues.

But the 3 who were there (Rayshell, Rayshell’s boyfriend Paul, and Sarah) were awesome and I had the best time with all of them!

We ordered food and drinks and just chatted about whatever. It was so low key and chill and it was exactly what I wanted. I don’t know if it could have been the same vibe if more people attended.

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Rayshell and Paul had to leave around 10 but Sarah and I stuck around until about 11. It was the perfect hangout with friends.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to drive home. And yes, I did stay up until midnight so I could enjoy the first minutes of my actual birthday.

And there were fun things ahead for me on my birthday and I’ll share that with you all tomorrow!

Coconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick)

I bought a jar of coconut oil at Trader Joes a while ago. I’ve been using it on my skin as a moisturizer and to help heal little cuts that I get (it seems to help with scars). But I had been seeing online about using it as a hair mask, so I figured I’d give it a try.

It’s really simple. All you need is some coconut oil, a hair clip if your hair is long, and a shower cap.

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My hair was dirty when I did this. I only wash my hair 2 or 3 times a week (helps keep my red hair from fading), but I made sure that my hair was brushed through and free of any tangles.

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Please ignore my greasy roots (and how badly my roots need to be dyed!). Coconut oil melts at a very low temperature (about 76 degrees and it was warmer than that in my house this particular day) so the coconut oil in the jar was actually pretty liquified when I used it.

I poured some oil into my hands and started to saturate my hair starting at the ends. I used most of it on the ends but I did put a little on my roots as well. I didn’t measure how much I used, but it was probably about 2 tablespoons.

After getting the oil in my hair (and making myself smell like a coconut cookie), I clipped my hair back into a bun and covered it with a shower cap.

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I read online on several sites that you should heat up your hair while the oil is in it. Many sites recommend using a blowdryer for this. But I’m lazy so I figured by covering my hair with the shower cap it would get warm in there and be good enough.

I left it in for about 30 minutes before I went to wash my hair. Since my hair is thin, I washed my hair twice to make sure that I got all of the oil out of it. Just a warning, washing the oil out of your hair will make the floor of your shower slippery. Be careful! Even though I have an anti-slip bathmat in my tub, I still was slipping.

I dried and styled my hair as usual and this is what I looked like when I was done.

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It wasn’t bad, but my hair didn’t feel clean. It felt more like the day after I shampoo. The curls held a lot more than they normally do when my hair is clean. And I felt like my hair was a little flat as well.

The next day, my hair looked much better.

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It was nice and shiny and felt a lot smoother than it usually does. And after washing it another time, it still felt really good.

I’m probably going to keep using this basic hair mask but only do it once a month or so. And I’m not going to expect my hair to look fabulous on the day I do it. But I think that it helped to make my hair seem healthier and shinier (and maybe a bit less frizzy). And since I’ve got a giant thing of coconut oil (and using it on my skin barely uses any of it), I might as well keep doing it!

If you have any other DIY hair masks I’d love to hear about them!

At Home Manicure Time (or I Actually Made My Nails Look Cute)

As much as I am a girlie-girl, I’m not very good at doing beauty things. I just didn’t get the hair and makeup gene. I can do basic things, but usually when things are more than using concealer or putting my hair in a ponytail I’m pretty much a failure.

When I was in college, I used to get my nails done fairly regularly (maybe every other month or so). Back then, $10 manicures weren’t much since I didn’t really have bills to pay. Nowadays, I can’t afford them (especially since they seem to chip right away), so when I do get my nails done, it’s a pedicure not a manicure.

But I still like my nails to look nice, so I’ve tried to do at home manicures. Normally it looks like a 5-year-old coloring outside the lines. So I pretty much stick to just putting some top coat on my nails so they are shiny (and a little stronger since my nails tend to peel).

But a while ago, I saw an idea online to make patterns on your nails using blue tape (also known as painters tape). So I decided to try it out and it worked really well!

Here’s what you’ll need:

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Base Coat, Top Coat, Color of Choice, Blue Tape, and Decorative Hole Punch.

First step is to do a basic base coat on all of your nails.

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Next, tear off some of the blue tape and use your decorative hole punch (mine was a star shape) to punch a hole in the middle of the piece of tape.

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Then, put the tape on the nail that you want to have the design on. Press the tape down so there are no air bubbles next to the hole (that would ruin the design).

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Take the nail color of your choice (mine was a silver glitter) and paint over the piece of tape. I did 2 coats because I wanted it to be very sparkly.

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Then you need to let the colored polish dry. And once you think it’s dry, let it dry for a few more minutes. If it’s even a little bit wet still, the borders of the design aren’t going to stay clean. Trust me on this. I made that mistake on my first attempt.

After the polish is dry, peel off the blue tape and you can see if you need to do any touch-ups.

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I thought that it looks pretty good as it was, so I didn’t do any touch-ups. Also, I’m sure if I tried to do a touch-up, I would screw up the design.

After the touch-up, paint all your nails with a coat of topcoat. You might have to do 2 coats on the nail with the design for it to feel smooth.

That’s it! I have another decorative hole punch that make a heart design (I bought the set on Amazon), but I’ve also seen a design that uses a bandage to make polka dots on your nails (I might try that one in the future).

While I might never really be able to do a full at home manicure, at least I can feel cute and girly with designs on my nails.

Blowouts, The Book Of Mormon, and Buddakan (or The End Of Day 2)

FTC Disclosure: I was giving a complimentary blowout in exchange for my review. All opinions are of my own and were not influenced by the free service.

After checking out the Empire State Building, Krystle and I got back on our hop on hop off bus. Our plan was to take the rest of the loop back to our hotel, then take the subway one stop so we could get to Drybar for our 5pm blowout appointments. I had mentioned to Drybar before the trip that I was going to be in NYC with my sister-in-law and they offered to treat me to a blowout while I was there. Of course I also booked an appointment for Krystle so we could have a fun beauty adventure.

It seemed like the perfect plan. Until it the bus seemed to be taking forever to make the loop. We finally ended getting off the bus with only 15 minutes to make it across town. We weren’t near a subway so we tried to hail a cab. Only we didn’t realize that it is very difficult to catch a cab between 3-5pm because that is when the shift change happens. We got turned down by several cabs and I started to panic that we were going to miss our appointments. I called Drybar to let them know that we were running late, and finally we caught a cab.

We made it to the Parker Meridien hotel about 10 minutes late. Before the appointment, I was a little worried about how my sister-in-law would like going to Drybar. My first experience with them (on my birthday) wasn’t the best. But I was trying to go into this with an open mind.

As soon as we walked in, we were both very happy. The place was gorgeous and as soon as we walked in, we were offered our choice of coffee, tea, water, or champagne (we both chose champagne).

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I was very happy to be offered a drink as soon as we walked in. That wasn’t not what happened at my last experience at the Drybar in Marina Del Rey (I was actually never offered a drink that time).

Krystle and I took a quick before picture. Our hair was totally windblown after being on top of the Empire State Building.

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We were taking back to have our hair washed. The warm water was so nice after being so cold on the bus. And the scalp massage was heaven. We got to sit in chairs next to each other, but we didn’t chat too much during the blowout because it was a bit loud with all the blowdryers.

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I chose the Straight Up hairstyle, which is a straight style with body at the ends. I can’t remember what Krystle chose, but it was a style with curls. We looked pretty amazing afterwards.

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It was so perfect that we got blowouts that day because we had an exciting evening planned that night. We started by going to “The Book Of Mormon”. We had seats in the very last row in the theater, but we were very centered.

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The show was great and Krystle enjoyed it as well. After the show, we got a cab and went down to Chelsea for dinner at Buddakan. My quick review of the restaurant was that the food was amazing, but the service was awful. Even though we had a reservation, we still waited over 25 minutes for our table. But if you go, I highly recommend the appetizer sampler and the mushroom noodles.

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I also recommend the Charm cocktail. It was delicious.

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By the time we were done with dinner, it was after midnight. We were exhausted.

But this was such a wonderful day of the trip.

Thank you so much to Drybar for providing me with a blowout that day. And now that Krystle has experienced the blowout experience, she’s hooked on it (as am I after seeing how great the experience can be). I know that blowouts are now going to be a regular outing on the trips that Krystle and I take in the future. And I know now that the Drybar experience is not what I experienced on my birthday, I will be going more often in LA, especially when I have special events.

Getting Pretty (or A Fresh Look For My New Pictures)

I’m going to be getting new headshots on Thursday, so I’m trying to get everything ready for the shoot. I’m picking out my clothes, trying to figure out how to pay for it since my unemployment money seems to be delayed, and getting myself looking pretty.

I try to time my haircuts and color around major events like holidays or my headshots. So this past weekend, I headed over to my friend Erin’s house so she could do my hair.

I knew that I wanted to change things up a little bit this time. I’m getting a little sick of my bangs, and I’ve had them for a while now, so it was time to grow them out. I also wanted to brighten up the color a bit.

I had been on the lookout for color inspiration on Pinterest and found this pin. I showed it to Erin, and she decided to do a slight modification on that color for me.

The night before getting my hair done, I washed my hair. But I was feeling far too lazy to dry it so I just put it in braids and went to sleep. So my before picture is pretty crazy since my hair was all over the place.

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You can totally tell that my roots were out of control and that the color on the ends was getting very faded.

After a full head of color and then highlights, I looked like this.

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It’s a much brighter red than I had in the past, but it still looks natural on me. In fact, we based this color on the color I had as a baby. We used a picture from my first birthday as a reference.

I’m super happy with my new color (I just think my brows need to be dyed back to be a little darker, but I can do that with a brow pencil). It’s nice and bright and looks super fresh.

Plus, it always looks amazing when Erin blows out my hair. I can never make it look that good. Even after sleeping on it, the blowout still looked pretty perfect.

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I’m ready for my new pictures now. Even though I haven’t lost as much weight as I could like from my last pictures, I think you really can tell in my face that I’m a little thinner now than I was before.

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I’ll definitely show off my new pictures as soon as I get them emailed to me. The shoot is on Thursday so I’m not expecting to have anything until next week.

But I’m feeling very confident going into these photos and I know that they will look amazing!

Happy Birthday to Me! (or Part 1)

A lot of things (and a lot of pictures) happened over my birthday, so I’m splitting this into 2 posts. This is pretty much what happened before 4pm on my birthday.

The day started off with happy birthday phone calls from various family members. One of my favorite phone calls to get is from my cousin Stephanie. Her oldest son, Dalton, sings happy birthday to me each year. It’s a tradition that I totally look forward to. This year, we FaceTimed so it was extra special.

The call started with a lovely video chat with my cousin’s youngest son, Hudson (who I will get to meet in real life for the first time at Thanksgiving).

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Then a very sleepy Dalton and his sister Annabelle came to the phone to sing to me.

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(I love being able to take screenshots of video chat!!!)

After those festivities, it was time for me to head over to SoulCycle for a spin class! This class was with Ben B., who taught the very first class that I went to. I actually hadn’t been to his class since that first one (he doesn’t teach with I can normally go), and it was really fun! He’s so high energy and upbeat.

When I was putting on my heart rate monitor for class, I noticed that even that was celebrating my birthday with me!

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During the stretch part at the end of class, one of the front desk people came into the room with a brownie with a candle in it. The entire spin class sang happy birthday to me! It was awesome!

Something else awesome about the class was a group that was in there. Remember last week when I was talking about how “The Biggest Loser” is one of my guilty pleasure but their workouts are a bit unrealistic? Well, it turns out that some of the contestants in the upcoming season of “The Biggest Loser” were in that spin class! I didn’t see any cameras so I have no idea if they will show it on tv. But I did get to see who some of the new contestants are (and no, I didn’t see Ruben Studdard). I didn’t take any pictures of the contestants since there were production people nearby and I didn’t want to get in trouble, but as soon as the new contestants are announced, I’m excited to see who it was that I saw in class! I guess that some of the workouts that they do are realistic since it’s something that I do pretty much every week!

After spin class, I got home and saw these flowers from my parents on my doorstep.

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After showering and getting dressed, I headed out to the one pampering thing I decided to do on my birthday. I got a blowout from DryBar. I had never been before, but I figured why not try it out.

It’s super nice inside. I loved the pop of yellow throughout the salon.

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They have a menu of styles that you can choose from. I chose the Cosmo-Tai since it seemed pretty fun (and not something I could do on my own).

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It also reminded me a bunch of this headshot of mine that I love!

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The stylist I got was very nice. She and I chatted a bit and then she got to work.

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While she was working on my hair, it didn’t really look at all like the style that I wanted. But I didn’t say anything because I’ve learned that you can’t judge a hairstyle by the process, you have to wait for it to be done.

Once it was done, it looked nothing like the picture in the menu. I asked her to fix it a couple of times, but I realized that it wasn’t going to be what I thought. It was a cute style, but I really wanted what I saw in the photo.

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With my cute hairstyle, I headed home and started to get ready for my birthday party. But those photos will have to wait for part 2 coming tomorrow!

Playing With Color (or Helping A Friend Go Purple)

On Sunday, I went over to my friend Emily’s house. She is leaving on a 2 1/2 week trip out of the country with her brother. She’s an actress as well, so we both share the frustration of not being able to change our look too often (when you change your look, you have to get new headshots that look like the new you).

Since she will be out of the country (and not auditioning) for a few weeks, Emily decided that now was the time to do something crazy with her hair (she’ll go back to her usual style when she gets home). And Emily wanted to go purple with her hair, and I was the first on in line to help her dye it!

Here is Emily’s before picture (she’s wearing a trash bag that we used as a cape to keep her as clean as possible.

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Since we were dealing with hair dye, I wanted to be protected too. So I put my hair back (no purple hair for me), and put on some gloves. I totally felt like a mad scientist.

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It’s been a while since I’ve dyed anyone’s hair (I used to do my own in middle and high school and I helped a friend once just after college), but I had a lot of fun. The purple dye was much thicker than other hair dyes that I’ve seen, so we weren’t too messy. Because Emily has so much hair, we used two bottles of dye. And after coating all of her hair, we put a shower cap on to protect it (and protect the dye from staining anything in her house).

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I know that I got some on her forehead, but that’s nothing compared to what I did to her back.

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Thank goodness for the trash bag/cape, but I got a ton of dye on her neck. I apologized a ton on Sunday for that, but I think that any non-professional probably would have had the same problem.

While we waiting for the dye to set, we chatted and caught up. Emily and I both have crazy work schedules, so it’s hard for us to find time to hang out. Plus, I wanted to hear all about the trip she was going on.

30 minutes later, Emily washed out the dye. She doesn’t typically blow dry her hair, so I didn’t get to see the finished look when I left on Sunday. Her hair looked a lot darker than normal, but it’s tough to tell when it’s wet.

On Monday, Emily sent me this picture.

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Her hair looks pretty different from her before picture. You can see the purple, but it’s not as purple as I thought it would be.

Overall, it was a fun beauty adventure to have on my day off. It’s not everyday that I help a friend dye their hair such a fun color (and I get to play mad scientist!).

Getting Pushed Into Changing (or A Story About My Hair)

I’ve had a serious love/hate relationship with my hair. When I was little, I hated how curly my hair was. And when it was cut short, I hated how I thought I looked like a boy (sorry, this is the closest I could find to a picture of me with short hair).

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I’ve been brunette, a redhead, and yes for a very brief time blonde (more like blondish). I’ve also had times where I’ve lost a lot of hair. When I was in high school, I had some decently sized bald spots. I had one behind each of my ears. Fortunately, I was able to have some shots that helped the hair grow back (I still get bald spots every once in a while, but nothing as noticeable as that was).

For a long time after college, my hair looked like this:

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Then, I decided to make a big change and get some side swept bangs.

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I loved them! I felt much younger with bangs, and I think they made my look much fresher. I’ve had side swept bangs now since 2011. They’ve been a good look for me and I’ve been very happy that the upkeep wasn’t too crazy.

I had been thinking about changing my look to full bangs for a while, but I didn’t want to deal with everything that comes with me changing my look. I have to get new headshots done (and printed). I have to update all my online casting sites. It’s a lot of work and I don’t want to have to do it too often (it’s also not cheap).

But this past weekend when I was getting my hair done, I was chatting with my friend who does my hair and she mentioned wanting to do something different with  my bangs. She wanted them to be straight instead of side swept.

And when she was done with my hair, I looked like this:

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I got the full bangs that I wanted but was scared to ask for! I’ve only had my new look for a day, but I’m already so much happier than I was with my old bangs. It might not seem like a huge change, but when it’s something that gives you much more self-confidence, it’s a huge thing.

Yes, I’m going to have to get some new headshots soon. I still look enough like my old ones for now (and I can style my hair to look more like them when I need to). But just as the last change was a positive one for me, I know that this one will only make me feel better about myself.

So thanks to my friend, who technically forced me into this haircut (even she joked about it). I’m so glad that I have a friend who does my hair and who can push me to try new things (like bangs)!