The Madame Queen and I are obviously in the same sort of hair style rut. I’ve been itching to change this hair color of mine for a while now because the blond highlights have just taken over my head. Besides the unsightly freckles, wrinkles, and Amaretto Sour hangovers that occur when I spend too much time in the sun, the highlights seem to spiral out of control as well. Damn vacations.
Nevertheless, GR has been harping on me about the blond, too (he’s not a fan of the color—unless, of course, it’s attached to Nicole Kidman). So, I went online and searched for some different hair color ideas, and I came to the conclusion that I needed to take a walk on the dark side. I decided on a dark chestnut brown color with some auburn highlights—perfect for the Fall. This color to be exact:
Not Lulu.
Pretty, right? However, through no fault of my hair stylist, that is not exactly the color that I ended up with. Not at all. And I lay full blame on the receptionist of the salon.
But before I go laying too much blame, let me just take you all on a quick journey through an evil little place that I like to call Lulu’s Hair Hell.
The journey starts when I was a young girl. Here I am (on the right) at approximately 6 years old with my sister and our 8-track stereo. As you can see, my sister was lucky enough to inherit a head full of thick, shiny black hair. But not Lulu. Mine was mousy brown and baby fine.
Here I am a few years later at 8 years old. My hair is a little darker, and I had just gotten my very own Dorothy Hamil bob haircut (pretty much the Rachel of the 70s). Well, it would have been the Hamil bob if my baby fine hair actually curled under on the ends. And if I didn’t have a cowlick.
And here I am at 11 years old. The stick-straight hair was slowly migrating to an awful wavy nuisance. In this photo, I must have been preparing for a jog or something? Hence the sweatband. Or perhaps I was imitating Olivia Newton John.
By the time I was 15, the frizzy wave had taken a strong hold. Unfortunately, it would be years before the CHI was invented.
Here I am at 18 years old with my mother and the blue-tinted glasses that almost devoured her face. My hair is a permed lion’s mane and a borderline mullet. Obviously, I didn’t think that I had enough curl in my hair, so I had gotten a perm. And a lovely pink-ish sweater to enhance the look.
And at 19, the perm/mullet cycle only gets worse. For many years, my hair was an embarrassing mess. Shut up.
At 22, there is noticeable improvement. I stopped getting perms and learned how to tame the wave. Alas, I also started coloring my hair out of a box…
However, at 27, I relapsed into a moment of horribly bad judgment and bleached my hair completely blond. I have no idea what I was thinking…
By the time that I was 30, I was still sporting the same freaking style, but with a toned down version of the blond. But still with very heavy highlights. And a very heavy tan.
And since my early 30s, I’ve been wearing my hair in different variations of the style as shown in the following picture. As well as taking random photos of myself in bathroom mirrors. I took this picture on Saturday morning—moments before I fell deeper into Lulu’s Hair Hell. It was very blond-ish at that point.
So, this brings us to the travesty that befell upon me.
I walked into the salon on Saturday armed with the first photo that I showed you at the top of the post, ready to wage war with my blond-ish hair. My hair stylist was not ready for me yet, so I sat in the front reception area clutching the photo with a death grip and drinking a Diet Coke that I’m not supposed to be drinking. And then, I noticed the receptionist’s hair. It was auburn. And shiny. I moved closer to the receptionist. I began talking to her. I began admiring her shiny, auburn locks. I wondered if I could have shiny, auburn locks. I looked down at the photo of the girl with the dark brown hair. I looked up at the receptionist. I asked the receptionist for her opinion of the dark brown hair. She looked at the photo. She looked me. And then she said, “It’s a nice color, but I think you would look great with auburn hair.”
Damn her and her shiny, auburn hair.
I’m thinking a few blond highlights are in order…
Ha!! I just did the same thing..went through old pictures of myself and all the bad hair days I had as a child. No wonder I had such a hard time making friends! Your tour was lovely-the mullet hairdo’s are my fave….
And Lulu!! I LOVE the new color! Tres chic!! Betcha wear it better than the receptionist too….
Love those mall antlers! Cobb county radar? Firecracker frizz? (DUCK)
Honey, your hair looks maaahhhvelous. It truly does.
You have one good eye? I’m jealous…
I love the color! I’ve always wanted hair that color but I have too much yellow in my skin. I love the cut, too. I may even have to print this out and take it to my appointment tomorrow. I just hope the receptionist at my appointment has normal hair and that I don’t have to wait very long!
I loooove your new blog design AND your new hair color! Fun stuff!
Now after having looked at the “other end” for a few days, I really do appreciate the up-side. (hehe!)
I was so excited to see that color on you, really, because what you picked is really nice. I’d like that, too. As I scrolled down and read through your fabulous :cough: hairdo’s of years gone by, though, I was really surprised at the color you wound up with - but you know? It’s really pretty. It looks natural, it matches your eyebrows (did they color your eyebrows?), it compliments your skin tone and it gives you a really pretty glow. I think it’d be great with some blonde highlights - but I’d give this a week or two to wear on you.
It looks really nice.
I colored mine last Saturday. I chose darkest brown, I got jet black. I think I’ve washed my head 30 times since Saturday afternoon!
I’m sure it’s a shock to you because it’s so different, but it looks *fabulous*!
Love the new blog design as well; I’m in the market for a designer in fact….
Lulu - I LOVE the color! Stick with the auburn, you are sassy enough to pull it off! And don’t feel bad about the hair hall of shame…as you well know, we have the same hair and have endured the same hell. You’ll be happy to know that I did my own blond highlights (read orange!) out of the box in the 7th grade and they looked oh so nasty in my shoulder length PERMED hair - with the teased bangs of course!
See…I purposely have very few photos of myself growing up for this very reason…
I too have baby fine, thin hair…worse, it’s an ash brown naturally, the last time I checked. In the 80’s I tried perms for body but they always came out frizzy. Never again.
I’ve been very successful as a red-head since sometime in my college years and most people think I’m a natural. Currently I do two thick blonde streaks on each side to add a bit of wildness. I’d like to have pink streaks but my boss says the blonde is as wild as I can get.
Okay, you may not like it and that’s what counts, but I think it looks great!
love, love, love the permed mullet. I too had something similar, I think I need to dig out old pictures…hmmm, maybe this weekend.
dont’ do TOO chunky cause you’ll look like a punker, unless you are going for that look. I would KILL to go auburn but my complextion is all wrong for it, I’d look gay (as in stupid, not homosexual)…
I love the hair style though since mine is almost the same.
I like the hair. it looks good, but if you are going to add a nother color add a dark brown thick lowlights not blong. Oh and your hair wasnt that bad at least you werent called sonny for half of you life.. REMEMBER… my short hair.. lol thks for the bday monkey.
I LOVE your new blog design… it is TOO cute! And I think we had those same drapes when I was a kid (the ones in the photo with you and the Christmas tree). I also like the color of the wall in the room next to the room that you use for photographing yourself in the mirror. That’s the color I was going for in my living room, but mine is just a little bluer than that… it needed to be a little grayer. And now that we’ve brought up gray, let’s get to that hairstyle… (gray is a 4 letter word in the world of hair - in most other parts of the English speaking world as well, but … well, anyways…)
I seriously love your new haircut and color. It is sharp, makes you look more lively than the blonde hair did. I used to do the auburn thing - though usually darker - but I’m headed away from red land because I’m afraid that it will announce to the rest of the world that I’m old WAY before I’m paying enough attention to notice… and I’ll just walk around looking all ‘harsh’ and stuff. Your hair is great though… I wouldn’t change a thing!
Do you remember that paint color/brand?
Ok, I have one last question… how are you able to resist the temptation to tuck that long bang behind your ear? I love the cut, but I’m sure it would never look like that because I’d be tucking it behind my ear.
See how yours is nice and straight… I’d have a big bend in the middle from ear denting..
just wondering..
LL - I love your new site and your hair style/color! (Seeing that mine is cut in a very similar fashion means we both have incredible taste, no?) I also must tell you I laughed so hard at your hair-line. I think I went through every single stage on your list…ah, the naive days of youth and apparent blindness through the lenses of blue-tinted glasses…
Before you cut it, in the blond-ish pic, could you gather your hair into a ponytail? I am in desperate need of a new style, and I adore your hair, especially the length in that particular photo, but I’m also lazy and occasionally like to put my hair in a ponytail. Especially on weekends.
And if you try to respond to me via email and it won’t let you again, let me know. I can’t for the life of me figure out why it’s doing that, and so randomly. Sometimes it lets people send me email, sometimes it doesn’t.