You did what with your hair?

Again, this happened back in October....

With a lot of PTO left before it expired at the end of the calendar year, I took a "mental health" week of vacation the week of Halloween and (essentially) vegged around the house.

It had been several weeks since my last hair coloring, so I thought I would take care of that as well. Having wanted to experiment with coloring my hair a darker shade than what it has been for years, with the hopes that I wouldn't have to spend so much time continuing to do highlights, I thought this week of at-home time was the perfect opportunity to play around with color, especially since I color my own hair.

Well... this is what happened.

This is a photo of my hair BEFORE coloring.

Another BEFORE shot of my hair to get the back.

And this is the AFTER.

While I realize that it turned out nice, it just didn't look like me. But, for those of you who have also colored your hair extremely darker or lighter, it is a bit of a shock and takes some getting used to before you can judge whether or not you like it. Well, after 5 days, I decided I missed the blonde Melissa and proceeded to spent a lot more time and money to get my golden hair back.

Oh, and although Monico didn't hate this as much as when I chopped off my hair to my chin in Spring '07, the expression on his face when he saw me drying it was priceless, as his jaw literally dropped and he could only say "uh... that is NOT blonde!"


P.S. In case you were wondering - it is SO much easier to color your hair dark then it is to lighten.

P.P.S. to my cousin Rachel: It took me 2 blonde colors and a highlighting kit over several days to get ALMOST back to my starting color... and I was freaking out the whole time thinking about the time that [newlywed] you burned your scalp by trying to go blonde on your own before you turned to a salon for help. Those are the kind of life lessons that stick with you... even after almost 11 years have passed since you did that... Thanks!