Hair update #2
November 4, 2010Enough about the new site. Let's talk hair.
First of all, this growing-out process has taught me something new about my hair: it doesn't grow unusually fast, like I thought it did. I was convinced my hair grew an inch a month (as opposed to the normal half-inch). It turns out that this was a lie I told myself, for no apparent reason. It actually grows at the same rate as everyone else. I'm learning so much about me! It's like adolescence all over again. My body is a wonderland.
Here's an interesting thing about growing out your haircolor when your hair is short: when you have all these layers, it's easier to hide the growth. At least in some parts. Take the above picture, where it looks like I have no gray at all. Meanwhile there's about two inches of gray underneath the inch of the faded auburn blech on top. Look here:
I have a gray undercoat! I'm just like my cat. Who stared at me while I took pictures.
The tall one has gone insane. Perhaps she will die, and I can finally eat her.
Around the part area, you can see even more gray. Here you go!
Finally, here it is in different light, where it almost looks like I'm going completely white:
Oh, another thing I learned about my hair: I'm not as gray as I thought I was. Since I've been graying since high school, I assumed I would have a shining silver mane lurking beneath all the dye, but it seems like the end result will be far less dramatic. Nonetheless, I really like it, so far.
I haven't gone for a haircut yet, but I did, well, cut my own hair. Scott looked truly alarmed when I told him this. He seemed to think this was evidence of mental illness, Oh, men! Just because I have no haircutting experience whatsoever and maybe laughed a little too maniacally after telling him about my haircut! But listen, I had just trimmed Henry's bangs, and I was feeling confident. And it's not like I used the kitchen shears! Sheesh.
You're seeing the results here, and I think it looks perfectly fine and not at all insane, SCOTT.
Reader Comments (45)
Not at all insane. I knows tons of not-insane ladies who cut their hair. Tell Scott I say, "pish posh," to his worries.
I love it, by the way!
my husband cringes at a lot of things I do... it's just an automatic reflex they have. your hair is looking great!
Oh my goodness! Your revamped site looks AMAZING. As does your hair!
I'm envious of you! I don't know what my actually hair color is. I've been dying mine a little darker than my eyebrows for the past few years. Prior to that I was bleach blonde for more years than I can remember.
Last month, I went to the salon and said "Let's dye my hair to match my roots." One hour of stripping and toning, and $150 later, I had gray hair. Not lovely, real gray hair like yours, but a fake gray. It was zombie gray. It was almost silver. America's Next Top Model Mister Jay Manuel silver.
My hair is now dark brown again.
Maybe one day soon I will be as brave as you and just grow it out. It is hat season after all.
I think it looks fabulous! I really like it. The gray gives your hair "depth." Like it should go write poetry while sitting next to a pond, or something.
I don't really know what I'm talking about. But I do like it!
Everything about this post made me giggle.
Love the new site and the new hair color!
I have become completely obsessed with Wito's preschool music teacher's white hair. Pure as the driven snow, that hair! My question is, can I forcibly make my hair that color? Hmm. (Should I be addressing this issue at, say, my hair website?)
I'm very admiring of your stealth growing out capabilities. You should patent the technique and make your fortune.
He only thinks you are insane because of the intense power of suggestion from all those movies that somehow equate female craziness with out--of-control grooming processes (because that's what ladies do, you know) like lots of imperfect applying of lipstick till it goes all over your face or cutting your own hair. But anyone looking at the pictures can see you're just as sane as can be. Because good-looking hair and no lipstick on the other parts of your face = perfectly sane!
Well, Whoorl, according to Krystyn above (and other accounts I've heard) dyeing your hair white isn't going to look the same. I think there are too many natural gradations of color that happen when your hair just...does this. Which is much of the reason I want to grow it out--I'm sick of that flat dyed look. If I had more money and energy and could weave highlights and lowlights and whatnot in there, I might feel differently!
It's on my life list to grow my hair out really long and then cut it off for charity. Yeah...I have the shortest hair. I'll be 80 and then no one will want old lady gray hair for a cancer wig.
I think you're hair is great.
One of my favorite blog topics in the world -- hair! I've also noticed with my own hair -- that if you are graying, the angle and intensity of the light is a deal-breaker. Someone recently put a recent photo of me -- on Facebook, of course -- and I looked as gray as a gray whale. But when I looked in my mirror, not so gray. So, I analyzed the situation and realized that the photo occurred in direct sunlight, and the reflection from the gray overwhelmed the brown. So, since I am too lazy to color my hair, I am doing the next best thing -- never going outside and only entering spaces with limited lighting, like romantic Italian restaurants and Catholic churches.
You look adorable. But I'm a little worried about your cat.
I just wanted to pop over and say I LOVE the new website. I actually almost had a heart attack because I have your old website in my "Favorites - Blogs" folder and all of a sudden, it wouldn't work. But thank GOODness you are still around. And spark-ly-er than ever!
I love that you are growing your hair out! And btw, I cut my fiances hair all the time. We even figured out how to do it like the hair-stylists do with the "fancy man cut" that "spikes and looks messy" but "so intentional." :-)
Also, my mom cut my hair until I was 21. Sooooo.... I'm probably insane.
I think your hair looks great! I went the opposite way and decided to color my hair. I just got tired of my natural color, which is pretty drab, and bought a box despite misgivings. I was right to worry; even though I chose Light Ash Blonde, my hair is now orange. It's not a bad orange, as orange hair goes, but it's also not at all what I was going for. I apparently have enough red in my hair to make anything with hydrogen peroxide in it make it turn orange. So I will be going through a grow-out too!
Your new site is very slick.
your hair looks really good!
Looks great! I would never attempt to cut my own hair though!
Whoa, you cut your own hair? It looks awesome! I really never would have guessed that. You are a far braver lass than I. I've been wanting to take the shears to my own hair for years. (too chicken!)
Tell your husband he's a nut, and you have super-hair-powers.
Let us all look to Jamie Lee Curtis for her amazing, sexy, bold grey pixie!! When I am ready to grow my grey out I am totally going that route. I think it would be so liberating! Can't wait to see how yours progresses!
i am so not hair brave. not with the length. not with the scissors. not with the dye, none of it.
kudos to you!!
The new site looks AMAZING. But not as amazing as that awesome haircut. Your head is most definitely outshining your blog.
I've been growing out my hairdye for over a year now. My hair is longer, so I've just had the awkward two-tone thing going for a really.long.time.
I'm excited to have all my own hair again though. Someday.
I am in awe of you. I can't believe you cut your own hair and did layers. Please never tell my husband you did this. He believes in his heart of hearts that we could all cut our own hair and save money and look fine, but he is WRONG. Also he is bald.
All right, I can't take credit for actually *cutting* it this way; I just trimmed the cut that was already there. It's really easy. I got a good pair of haircutting scissors, held up sections between two fingers, and chopped into each section, holding the scissors perpendicular to my head. So it looks sort of uneven on purpose. Then I went around, making sure each section was about the same length.
Two years and two months ago, my hair was - and had been for ages - every bit as short as yours, Alice, and I decided to let it grow long enough to donate to Locks of Love or something like that (hi, Cindy!).
Now it's long enough to cut for that if I were ready to go back as short as it used to be, but I've decided that, after it's cut, I want it to still be down to or just past my shoulders - in other words, long enough to still pull back into something like a ponytail to get it out of my face. My hairdresser says I've got another year or so to go.
Your gray looks GOOD and I like kate's Jamie Leigh Curtis reference!