Tuesday, May 18, 2010

ADVENTURES IN HAIR

We've been promising you a surprise and today's the day for the big reveal. First hint: You may have noticed a few changes on our Header. For one thing, we've gone from 'chicks who rock and write' to 'Fiction in the Fast Lane'!! Woo Woo. We've also moved our names to the side of the header instead of beneath it. Looks classy, huh? BUT, the biggest change on the header is: TA DA - we have a new rider!!! The fabulous, fun and fantastic Leanne Banks has officially hopped in the 'vert and will be riding along with us from now on. Yay!!!!!
So, please give Leanne a big warm Rider welcome, will you? We just know you're going to love having her along for the ride as much as we are!

Without further ado ... heeeeeerrrrrreeeee'sssssss Leannnneeeee.....

I’m so excited about joining the Top Down Writers that I can hardly stand it. I’m grinning like a loon. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your fab group!:)

I suppose I could have chosen something profound for my first as an “official rider”, but my brain kept returning to the subject of ... hair.

I was born bald. My mom told me the advantage of bald babies is that they look cleaner longer.

Since I was the third daughter, I’m thinking that may have been a good thing. When my hair finally came in, it was blonde with the consistency of cotton candy. I always got bad bedhead after a nap. As a result, my mother kept my hair short for the first ten years of my life while I dreamed of long locks that reached all the way down my back. With my fine hair? Never. Gonna. Happen.

Teenage years hit along with hormones and my hair turned the color of dirt. So highlighting began. First with a paint-brush. I ended up with leopard spots. Then came the cap.

Have you noticed that we sometimes change our hair when we go through big life changes? In my case, I chopped mine off in a pixie cut six months after I got married. Surprised the heck out of my husband. After my first child was born, I briefly went red. After my second child was born, I dyed my hair dark brown.

With varying success, I’ve had foils for highlights and lowlights for the last – (sheesh!) ten years... or longer. Lately, however, I’ve begun to resent the moolah and perhaps even more so, the time spent rotting in the hairdresser’s chair. Every six to eight weeks, shell out the money and spend two to three hours in “the chair”. So I’ve decided to rebel and attempt to handle most of my hair color on my own. It’s not as if the hairdressers do a perfect job. (woman in foils Photo credit: Alan Berner, The Seattle Time)

Surely I should be able to mess up my own hair for a lot less money. Yes?

What about you? Have you ever made a dramatic change to your hair? Do you master your hair color? Or does it master you? How often do you go to “the chair”?

I’m giving away all three books from my Silhouette Desire series: Medici Men.

69 comments:

pjpuppymom said...

Welcome, Leanne! I love your books and am looking forward to your blogs here at Riding With the Top Down!

I never thought of hair changes in connection with life changes but you're absolutely right. As I look back, many of my extreme hair changes have been during times of life change. I didn't color my hair until nine years ago. A few months after my husband's death, I decided I was too young to be gray and headed off to my stylist who was oh-so-accommodating. I still visit him every six weeks. (my hair grows like a weed) Because it grows so fast, we can have a lot of fun experimenting with different styles. A while back, we switched from permanent color to semi-permanent. It's about half the cost which makes it very attractive to me. I haven't worked up the nerve to try it on my own yet. ;-)

Helen Brenna said...

Hey, Leanne, so fun to have you aboard!! Welcome!

My first big hair change took place right after my senior high school pics. I had straight hair down to my butt, and the day after I got my senior pics taken I had it all cut off up to my shoulders and got a perm! Yikes!!

The good thing about that trauma was that it started a whole series of changes. Good stuff, in the end!

Cindy Gerard said...

Leanne
SQUEEEEE!!!! So excited to have you in the 'vert, girlfriend.
for those of you who might care :o) Leanne and I go back to our Loveswept days many, many moons ago. The deal is, I can't figure out while she still looks like she's 30 and I ... well, I don't.

maybe it's the hair???? :o)
Welcome again, kiddo. So happy to have you here.

krisgils33 said...

thanks for an intriguing post. my hair woes are completely different...extremely thick and wavy, yet still completely unruly. I get highlights about every 3 months or when the mood strikes me and I have time to sit for a couple of hours. About a year ago, I started getting a brazilian relaxing treatment. Works great, costs about $450 a pop and I have to do it every 3 months. The result is I don't spend an hour drying and straightening my hair, there is less frizz, and it generally looks a bit better with not quite as much work. Are we ever really happy with our hair? I could probably feed a small country with what I spend on my hair in a year, but I feel it is a necessary evil!!!

Leanne said...

PJ Thanks for the welcome!:) And good for you figuring out a less expensive way to keep your hair the way you like!:) I think it's cool that you're having fun with the changes. You go girl!:)

Leanne said...

HELEN! YOU have the hair I wanted!!! Pics? Pics?:) But how cool is it that you made such a dramatic change at that particular time? Another way of getting ready for all the changes ahead. Thanks for the welcome! I'm so happy to be here!

Leanne said...

THanks My Cindy! I'm so lucky to have you as my longtime friend! Cindy's right. We've been friends for close to 20 years. We've cheered and consoled each other through the good and bad. What a gift.

Pamela Keener said...

Hey There Leanne welcome aboard.

My hair is fine, as in thickness LOL, but I have a lot of it so it does overcome some woes. I let the hair coloring to my hair cutter since I am absolutely sure instead of mahogany my hair would be an ugly purple or something scary like that. I am 54 years young but I don't think I want to scare the neices and nephews with that hair. I go every 6 weeks so the grey that is trying to creep thru doesn't get out of hand, another scary thought.

My other problem with my hair is flat head. I often look like someone put a bunch of books on the top and took them off. Oh well
at least I have hair.
Love & Hugs,
Pam

Leanne said...

Kris, great comment! I've read about the Brazillian treatment. When something changes how much time you have to spend on your hair on a daily basis, it can really change your attitude and it frees you up to spend time and energy on other things. I'm glad you've found something that helps!

Leanne said...

Pam, thanks for the welcome! I have flat hair too! I feel as if I've spent most of my life fighting gravity with my hair!:) I use mousse and I still use electric rollers because I'm not skilled enough with the blow dryer or curling iron. I'm always looking for the Holy Grail product to fix it. You have a great attitude! "At least I have hair." Thanks!;)

KylieBrant said...

Welcome, Leanne. I'm blessed with a wonderful, if quirky hairdresser. However she is slow as molasses. A cut and color can last 2 1/2 hours and I resent spending that much time in the chair. Especially--ahem--since I know have to go more frequently. Bless her, she's learned (after more than 20 years) that my attention span doesn't stretch much past an hour. So she's getting faster!

Lucky for me because it's all I can do to curl my hair. I certainly would never attempt to dye it. Although the dh might lend me a hand...back in the perm days he used to give me a 'tip Tony' just for the bangs, LOL.

Laurie G said...

Hi Leanne,

I've had the same hair style most of my life. BORING!

However, if I cut it, it spreads outward like a bush. I need the weight of long hair to keep it straight.
It's starting to gray on the top. My daughter gave me some hair color (Hint, Hint) but I swim in chlorine and I don't want to end up with green hair! I also don't want to color the roots every 3-4 weeks so I'm stuck in indecision.

Laney4 said...

Welcome, welcome, welcome, Leanne! Before I forget, I loved reading THE PLAYBOY'S PROPOSITION (one of the Medici Men books). Without giving anything away, I enjoyed the interactions between the H/h throughout, as well as their bond. I felt you captured their relationship extremely well.

As for this hair issue, I apparently am not the one to discuss this (but I will). I had short hair as a youngster and wanted it long. Grew it out in Grades 8-10 and felt I looked like a dog, as it emphasized my long neck and long nose. Chopped it in Grade 10 and have had the exact same hair style most of the years since.

I changed hairdressers constantly until I was about 25, because they didn't do the cut that I wanted; they did what THEY wanted. They would put perms in and then cut my hair so the perms weren't so curly. (Boy, they stunk back in the eighties!) I looked okaaaaay, but it wasn't me. When I was 25, I found a hairdresser who cut it the way I wanted (and didn't give me a guilt trip over it). I have gone back to her repeatedly, so that's 26 years now. I make sure I tip her well.

About 15 years ago, I started getting headaches when my hair got past the 6-week mark; my hairdresser confirmed that 7% of the population get headaches when their hair gets too heavy/long, so I can never have long hair again. I can now go anywhere from 5 to 14 weeks before the headaches occur, so I just wait till then to book my haircuts (as I'm too cheap to cut it at 5 weeks repeatedly when there's a chance I can go up to 14 weeks instead). Besides, I like the look of my hair when it is a little bushy around the 8-week mark....

As you can tell, I have thick hair. My mom had her hair thinned right up till she was about 70. It was still thick when she died 6 years later, so I don't think thin hair will be a problem for me, but headaches will be.

When I was 16 I had a crop of white hair on my crown; ALL of my hairdressers told me to colour my hair. I chose to pull out said few hairs and later I cut them out. By the time I got my current hairdresser, she cut them out for me (again without guilt). She DID say I might want to colour it instead, but I am and always will be too cheap and lazy (I have other things I prefer to do with my time) so I didn't colour it. When I turned 46, she told me I no longer needed to cut said white hairs out because they now blended in with white hair everywhere on my head. She again asked if I'd like to colour my hair and I declined.

My husband is ten years my senior, so he's had white hair for years now. I don't find it a big deal going white as well. Perhaps if he were ten years my junior I might have an issue (but I sincerely doubt it, as I'm a "take me as I am" person who rarely wears makeup). Today my brown hair is a lighter brown colour because of all the white (I dare not call them grey) hair interspersed. I tell people I have brown hair with white highlights. They laugh and then agree with me.

I'm always amazed at what women will go through, whether it be makeup or hair colourings. I am so glad that I stayed out of all of that! I admire what work the women perform to look just so, but I'll stick with hopping in the shower, getting dressed, brushing my hair, and being out the door about 5 minutes later.

Kirsten said...

I only changed my hair color once and it was SUCH a disaster that I never had the guts to try again. I wanted beachy blond but after doing it myself, at home it turned out a very strange orange, almost carrot-like shade. So I freaked out, put on a cap and went for an emergency make-over to my salon.

The story gets worse ->
When I left the hairdresser and stepped into the daylight my hair had a peculiar green shade!! Yes madam, they said, when I immediatly returned. What do you expect? it was already awful and this is all we can do... Somehow I doubt that. So after that I only go (to a DIFFERENT) salon to get a nice haircut. Orange or green just don't go well with my complection.

Leanne said...

Kylie, 2 1/2 hours! Yikes, girlfriend, I'm feeling your pain! And hey my husband has helped me with my hair a few times when I dared to pull it through a cap! THanks for the welcome!:)

Leanne said...

Laney! So great to see you here! So thrilled that you enjoyed my book!:)

Wow, you do have some hair adventures, don't you? That must have been awful getting those headaches. I'm so glad you figured out what was causing them. It sounds like you've got your management of them down to a tee! Good for you! Thank you for the welcome!

CrystalGB said...

Hi Leanne. Love your books. I go to 'the chair' every eight weeks. Since I have prematurely graying hair, I have been having my hair colored for years. I have had several different colors and some major disasters (gun metal gray and lemon yellow) which had to be fixed before I left the salon. I wish I could just have my natural color without any gray.

Leanne said...

Laurie, good for you swimming! That's SO good for you! I think there's something you can put on your hair to keep it from turning green, but I'm not sure what it is. I also hear what you're saying about coloring the roots every 4 weeks too! The things we do! I highlight my hair and my problem is dark roots. I HATE them, so I just tried something a hairdresser suggested called "breaking the base". We'll see if it works!:)

Leanne said...

Kirsten, I had an orange, brassy experience once RIGHT BEFORE my wedding photos were supposed to be taken and I didn't do this to myself. A salon did it to me. I spent the ENTIRE day in a different salon for color correction. I think they have to use green (ash) or purple to correct gold. I know it's complicated, but I really want to try to conquer this!!:)

Leanne said...

Crystal, thank you so much for your sweet comment about my books! <3 You sound like a hair warrior. Take the disasters in stride and just tell the hairdresser to fix them. Good for you. I know the gray hair is a pain, but I hear it's supposed to add texture. For a flathead like me, that's a good thing!:)

Keri Ford said...

Welcome Leanne!

I gave up on the hair thing years ago. got tired of the roots and the money and yes, the TIME it took.

I was born bald too. Grew in white blonde and baby fine until probably high school when it started darkening up and I started highlighting. Now I am all natural color of some wonky aubrun/blonde/brown mix. gotta love hormones :)

Virginia C said...

Whoo-hoo! Great to see you along for the ride, Leanne! My hair trauma started at a very young age. I was born with very fine, pale blonde hair that my mom said looked like a "shine on my head". I was a "Paw Paw's girl", and I went everywhere with my grandfather, even to the barber shop! He liked short neat hair on everyone, even me, so he had my hair cut when he went to the barber! People would say to him, "What a cute little boy!", and I would answer back: "I'm not a little boy, I'm a little girl!"

There is a black and white portrait of me taken shortly after one of my haircuts. I have on a lace-trimmed dress, white tights, black patent leather shoes and a bracelet...with my boy haircut. The photographer did the best he could, but I wouldn't crack a smile. Mom never liked that picture, but it's one of my favorites : )

Leanne said...

Keri, if that's YOUR hair in your pic, then I would say your color mixture is pretty ding-dong good! Looks gorgeous! And aye-aye to your comment on hormones!lol

Michele Hauf said...

Welcome, Leanne! So glad to have you with us, and looking forward to getting to know you over the next 4 years!

I've always had long hair, until about three years ago. I cut it all off (and let it go naturally gray). I will never go long again! It's so freeing to be short! Though I did dye it back to brown. I'm not ready to look like someone's grandma yet. :-)

Leanne said...

Thank you for the welcome Virginia! And omigosh, I love your story. It shows so much about your relationship with your grandfather. I can see why you love that photo. You really plucked at my heartstrings with that one! Thank you for sharing!

Leanne said...

Michele, thank you for the sweet welcome! I'm so thrilled to be here. Ah, you decided to liberate yourself when you cut your hair. I bet that was a power moment for you. Regarding the grandma thing, I would welcome BEING a grandma, but I'll fight looking like one -- for now, anyway.:)

Terry Odell said...

I think I've done it all. And every year, around my birthday, I'd tell my stylist to "do something different" and then go with whatever he came up with. What's scary is that my driver's license picture was taken in 1989 and I've got the big, long, permed hair thing going.

Now that I've moved to a dryer climate, I've been toying with letting my hair grow out, at least a bit. Long--or even longish--hair in Florida's humidity was a disaster, so it's been short for about 15 years.

Christie Ridgway said...

Hi, Leanne! Welcome! I get my hair cut and colored/highlighted every 6 or 7 wks. ::sigh:: over the cost, but I don't mind so much the time in "the chair." I look at fashion magazines and obsess over just about everything with my long-time hairdresser.

Sometimes I think about doing the coloring myself but I don't want to take the risk of messing it up.

Heather Webber said...

Oh gosh. Bad memories. After my daughter was born, I took me and my perfectly lovely long hair to the salon and (gasp) permed it. Worst. Hair. Ever. Now I caution all friends against going to the salon after having a baby. Wait out the urge--trust me.

Charity85222 said...

Hello Leanne!

To answer your question, "Have you ever made a dramatic change to your hair?" only takes three simple letters...YES! I don't even know where to start sharing my adventures in hair. I think one of my most memorable was in 8th grade. Everyone around me was much trendier and I was jealous and desperate to break out of my shell. My mother allowed me to buy some home hair color and dye it any color I wanted. I am a natural brunette with extremely fair skin so it would have been nice had she warned me that many colors will make me look like Casper the Ghost with a wig. As you may have guessed, I picked a bad color. I went with platinum blonde and it was HORRIBLE. I was brave and went to school despite my sheer horror. Nobody even noticed and I think that hurt my feelings more. I was hoping for some compliments. A few weeks later I was tired of the washed out look (mind you it was the 80's and I had big mall hair with a perm and ultra-blue eyeliner too) so I bought some more dye. Here is a tip for everyone: do not change from platinum blonde to dark, dark brown when you have damaged hair 1 hour before school. I ended up with flaming orange dry hair that had a miserable frizz to it. I cried and cried but my mom still made me go to school. I was crushed and devastated but I got some attention. Everyone either loved it (or so they claimed) and others said I looked like BOZO the clown. I was kicked out of two classes for causing a disturbance and the school called home to request my hair be changed to a more natural color. It was a tough couple of months.

I could go on forever with hair stories. I know I have strawberry birthmarks on the back of my head from my sister and I experimenting with home hair cuts using hair clippers and she didn't know to use the guard, when my boyfriend tried to give me a bowl-cut and ended up with a pixie, or the perm from hell that made me look like I had a cotton ball for hair. The misadventures I have had are numerous and all revolve around wanting a change or needing to recover from traumatic things around me.

Laura Bonko said...

Most dramatic change to my hair: I went to the salon to have my hair dyed blonde, and it turned out yellow. I came home and cried.

LSUReader said...

Welcome, Leanne! I have to admit, hair has never been my thing. It and I just don't agree. So I keep it short. (That way there's so much less to be disagreeable!)

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the blog! I love your topic for today's post because I've been discussing this with my friends for years and we never get tired of sharing hair stories.

About 7 years ago I cut my hair really short- that spiky punk do. My logic was that if it's hot I just put it in a ponytail so why have it be long in the first place. I love it! The problem is that most places assume that I want a boy type cut and I just don't want to shell out the big bucks and go to a salon where they understand what I want. So I experiment with people until I find a decent place.

Now color, well, I've been tinkering with that since I was 12. Started with Cyndi Lauper and never looked back. I love color- wild and crazy, dark and bright, nothing is off limits. I loved being pink and auburn (together), but my favorite was chocolate brown, fire engine red and blonde (again all at once).

The good part is that I do most of the color myself and save the money. Just dyed my hair bright red 2 days ago- got tired of natural looking blonde so I changed it up.

Change can be good!

Jane said...

All throughout high school I had long hair which I put up in a ponytail. The summer before senior year, I chopped it all off and got a pixie cut. All the kids at school were shocked to see long hair gone. I have black hair and have never gone lighter than medium brown.

Unknown said...

Welcome Leanne, glad you are ridding with us here now!

I have very thin, fine hair that has a mind of its on! I use to ware it long and kept a body perm in it. About two years ago I went and had it all cut off to the pixie cut and its been that way since!

Michele Benard said...

Hi Leanne! Hair a subject that I know very well I've been a hairstylist for 15 years I have heard and seen it all I have fixed many disasters that people have done to themselves. I have heard many stories behind the hair changes people want. As for myself I have naturally wavy thick brown hair,but right now I'm blonde I wear it straight, curly or wavy depending on my mood. I've has short hair red hair perms and straightened it. I once told my husband when we first met don't ever get use to the cut or color because it is most likley going to change often.

Linda Henderson said...

I've never been to a stylist to have my hair colored, I always do it myself. It's so much cheaper. I don't cut my own hair though, that would be a disaster waiting to happen. I used to cut my own bangs when I was in high school and I look back on those pictures now and think, "What was I thinking."
Welcome to the blog and I do love your books.

Anonymous said...

no t much just went red once and i had to dye it twice lol
congrats on the book
kh
wtg winners

Kathleen Eagle said...

Welcome, Leanne! I'm so glad you're joining us. You've always been the very picture of enthusiasm.

Your hair tale I much like mine--born bald, came in just fine (which is not wonderful for hair) so Mama kept it short until I was old enough to take care of it myself. In high school I used rollers every night, and the curl was gone by the end of first period.

I was ready for the 60's. No ironing for me. Cut it off when my first baby was a few months old. It was a pain to fuss with and a pain when he got hold if it.

I don't know what a good hair day is, really, but the pros have come up with some pretty effective ways to cut hair to give the straight stuff a little style. You pay for it, but it's worth it.

Fortunately, Clyde endowed the kids with good hair.

Heidi Duckworth Hard said...

Leanne, I'm so glad that you're here and I can "see" you more :) I have had red hair my whole life and I've never touched it except for the obligatory "SUN-IN" experiments in high school. I'm afraid to try anything. And yes, the carpets match the drapes ;) I have the skin and the body hair to go with it, so if I dyed it, I would look really funky. However, as I start to grow really funky, coarse gray hairs, I wonder about a little cover up. A little high-lighting. But I resent the maintenance. I want to reach for a "Grecian formula" for women. Is there such a thing? Help ladies! What is a wilting, fading redhead to do?

chey said...

Hi Leanne,
Great to see you here!
Now that I think about it, most of my big hair changes have been around the same time as changes in my life.

runner10 said...

Welcome aboard Leanne!!
I am afraid to do anything to drastic to my hair. I have just started getting gray hair. I have not tried coloring my hair, but will have to very soon. My solution has been to pull them out.
I would love to read your books. They sound great.

Leanne said...

TERRY! That's right! Now that you've moved to Colorado (low humidity state) you can now have awesome hair. (You dirty dawg!) I remember some of my best hair was in Reno....:) With RWA in Orlando, we can officially look forward to "Humidity Hair". Ooog.

Leanne said...

CHRISTIE, your hair always looks great, but you're so cute, I suspect you would look pretty no matter what you did with your hair.:)

Leanne said...

HEATHER, I have had that bad perm before. Brillo pad bad. I think you may be right about telling new moms not to change their hair for at least six months to a year depending on how colicky the baby is. GREAT point!

Leanne said...

CHARITY! Great to "see" you!:) OMG, you have REALLY been through it with your hair. We all live and learn, right? I cringed when I read that you had to go to school with the really bad color. I'm wondering what you do now because I think it looks pretty in your pic.

Leanne said...

LAURA, so sorry for your yellow hair. Mine went super brassy one time. SO GREAT to see you here!!! Thanks for chiming in!:)

Leanne said...

LSUreader, Good for you! You have clearly learned to RULE your hair! We should all take a lesson from you.:) Thanks for commenting.:)

Leanne said...

Anna, thanks for the welcome! And you color your own hair pink and bright red? You truly have ba-- guts!:) I'd love to see a pic. Do you dye it pink all over? TOO COOL!

Leanne said...

Jane, good for you. Do you enjoy the pixie? I remember when I got mine I was afraid I looked like an ostrich because I have a long neck. Smart girl on the color. I read that if you're coloring your own hair it's best if you only stray one or two shades from your natural. Thanks for joining in!:)

Leanne said...

Virginia thanks for your sweet welcome. I bet you loved waving in the rear view mirror over that perm! I remember those days! Good for you!:)

Leanne said...

Michele B! You're so lucky. You can make changes left and right with hair without fear of disaster because you know "the secrets". Love that you told your husband not to get used to one hairstyle. You go girl!:)

Leanne said...

Linda, you're so sweet! Thank you for the welcome nad the kind words on my books! I admire you for coloring on your own. I'm working on that! As for cutting bangs, I can actually cut my own. Yes, I learned how to cut mine in a way that works for me. I separate the part of my bangs that need a trim then pull them together in the center of my forehead and snip - just a little. That way, the center is just a little shorter than the sides which works well for me. My tip for the day. haha!

Leanne said...

kh, thanks for joining in. Did you like the red or decide it wasn't for you?

Leanne said...

KATHLEEN! Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I remember rolling my hair at night. The good thing about learning to roll your hair when you're young is that you can do it VERY fast from all that repeated practice.:) Do you remember sleeping on those rollers? Owie! LOVE your style in your pic!

Leanne said...

Heidi! Lol about the carpet matching the drapes! Too cute! You're so lucky you have a definite color. I remember how much I admired my sisters' dark beautiful hair color partly because it was a definite color and mine was. Not. There's gotta be something you can put on it that's low maintenance. Sheesh, if the men have an easy product, we should too, shouldn't we! THANK YOU so much for the sweet welcome!

Leanne said...

CHEY! Great to see you here too! Thanks for chiming in! Isn't it interesting the way we make changes in our hair partly as a reaction to what's going on in our lives?

Leanne said...

runner10 thanks so much for your wonderful welcome! You sound as if you want to avoid taking the hair color plunge as long as possible. Can't say I blame you! It's a time suck! Good luck when you dive in!:)

Leanne said...

Karyn, thanks for the welcome! Poodle perm? I did something similar. It was AWFUL in the summer when I went swimming. AWFUL! Glad those days are gone.:)

catslady said...

I have thick hair - wish it was smooth but it is full. It got darker after I had kids to almost black and then I got a white streak that people would ask how I put it there lol. I let it turn grey and only tried dying it once and hated it (it grows fast so roots showed almost immediately). It's me and I'm happy with it.

Leanne said...

Catslady, great to see you here! I think your hair sounds cool -- super dark with a white streak. Sounds exotic and distinctive. Good for you liking what you've got!:)

georganna said...

Welcome!
What a timely topic for me. I'm getting a haircut on Friday and I want to try something new. I've had basically the same 'do' since I graduated from college 15 years ago. Prior to that, I used to perm it to death.
I haven't colored it yet (except for the burgundy mousse in high school), but the grays are multiplying like rabbits, so that's next on the horizon.

Heather said...

Hi Leanne!

Up into college I always wore my hair long, at least shoulder length to mid-back. Then sophomore year in college I decided I was tired of it and wanted it cut during spring break. A lot of friends tried talking me out of - they would love to have hair that long, blah blah blah, but they didn't have to take care of it.

The change in their reactions once they saw the new, chin-length bob (the style I've usually worn since then) was rather hilarious. *Grin* Of course, best of all was the double-take received from a guy I liked when he first saw it. Nothing ever came of that, but the memory still makes me feel good all these years later.

Charity85222 said...

Thanks Leanne for the compliments on my pics.

As for current hair, I home color every 2 months or so. Pharmacy school, 4 kids, husband and life have made my hair start to grey and I hate it. I love my natural color but it doesn't seem to like me.

The older I get, the more wave and frizz I have to cope with. I will semi-dry it then I use a special dryer to add some style. I have this thing that looks like a really large curling iron but it is a hair dryer and I can take the frizz out, help shape it or add body. I gave up trying to flat-iron my hair. Humidity, sweat, or just cheap hair spray always end up returning my hair to its natural unruly condition within a few hours of straightening. Plus, I hate hair that feels like straw and excessive heat just kills my hair beyond repair.

I like your hair in your pics too. I wish I could pull off blonde hair. It hides grey/silver hair and always draws attention.

Jan said...

Leanne,

Congrats on joining the ladies. The topic of hair is such a universal woman thing. We torture ourselves way too much. But when everything else in life is going wrong, sometimes it helps to take on a new look. And I gotta say, spending two hours at the salon is still cheaper than therapy:)

jeanette8042 said...

No need to count me in on the giveaway!

I never made a dramatic change to my hair because I always liked the way it is and I rarely ever go to "the chair" because I'm afraid of ending up with a cut I hate.

robynl said...

I always had longer hair but the last few years have been getting it shorter; for one, I got it cut after my breast cancer diagnosis so it would be wash and blow dry easy.
As for color, I was envied a lot with my blond hair, sometimes almost white. Now I am darker and am seriously thinking of getting highlights at least.

I ♥ Book Gossip said...

Last year I had a woman give me straight across bangs and I looked like Justin Beiber, it look horrendous.

cindyc725 at gmail dot com

s7anna said...

I've been colouring my hair since I was 13...I'm now 28...for the last 7 years I've been colouring my own hair. I got tired of paying so much for salon service...I'm actually really happy with my current colour...I sometimes regret not having done it sooner.

*hugs*
Anna