What's up with that hair?

The 4 of you that read this are my facebook friends, so you've heard about my new hair do. As a typical woman, I have been unhappy with my hair for a long time. I am too chicken to experiment with color (and I figured there's plenty of time to deal with color when I'm busy dying the greys), so I normally experiment with the cuts. Long or short, layers or not, etc. I also have naturally curly hair, so I wear it straight or curly. Wearing my hair curly takes a whopping 30 seconds to do, which includes the following steps: after washing, run fingers through wet hair; apply mousse and a bit of gel; done. Sounds awesome, but it doesn't always look that great. Rainy days help encourage the curl, but also frizz. I think my hair looks its best when I blow dry it straight then use a flat iron or curling iron. Which takes about 30 - 45 minutes and uses a lot of electricity and makes my whole room very hot. (It's hard to apply makeup to a face that is sweating, not to mention feel clean.) All that work to just have it ruined by the tiniest percentage of humidity or sweat. Pretty much all summer I wear it curly or up. I've just dealt with it for so long.....until now!

I finally got the gumption to make my hair what I want it to be. I called my hair dresser to ask her about getting a perm done to straighten my hair instead of curl it. Use the same chemicals and everything. She said she does that, but the chemicals are bad for my hair and I need a special conditioning rinse afterwards so it's not in awful shape. She gave me a price quote, which was slightly under what I was planning on paying. Sounds good, but after it starts growing out, I'll have curly roots. Not attractive! Then she told me about this fairly new keratin treatment. (She's been doing it for a couple of years and has had it herself once or twice - always a good sign.) Since hair is mostly made up of protein and keratin, they wash your hair and retrain it to be straight using keratin, which is actually like vitamins for your hair. It took about 3 hours and my hair is short, and was more expensive than I planned on paying, but it's gonna be awesome. Those of you who have seen my bone straight hair on facebook saw just the first step. My hair won't look like that after I wash it. The keratin treatment reduces curl and frizz, so after I wash it (yes, I need to wait 72 hours to wash it to make sure my hair takes the treatment), it'll look a lot more like my old hair on the days I blow dry it. The best part is it will last 3-6 months and will fade slowly instead of having nasty roots. Sounds perfect, I just look like a grease ball these three days. :-)

So, when I came home I rushed to Michael and said, "it's not going to look like this! It's like when you first get a perm and it's crazy curly - it doesn't stay like that." He said, "no it looks good." and gave me a smile and a hug. Then he said, "where's the rest of it?" because I have thick hair but right now it looks so fine and thin. A few hours later I had to tell him it cost more than I thought it was going to and wanted to consider it my birthday present. He said, "um, how much WAS it?" When I told him, he shrugged and said, that's not too much. Granted, I splurge on my skin care products, but everything else I buy off Target's shelves. I don't do anything expensive with my hair, clothes, shoes, makeup, etc. So, this was a big deal and certainly a first for me. Can I say how nice it is to have such a supportive man? I always say it and it's because I always feel like it's true. Michael just wants me to be happy. His eyes sparkle and he delights in my happiness. Ah, what a good man.

So, as soon as I can wash my hair I'll post more pictures of what my hair will really look like. :-) Of course, I didn't factor in my third day of grease ball head with completely flat, straight hair is Sunday for church! I am going to sit in the back and hope no one sees me!! :-)