Long Hair, Tangled Hair, Blue Hair, Pink Hair

This weekend I went home to Detroit for a last summer visit. I was only home for about 37 hours, and was so busy that I never even sat on the couch. So I'll catch you, starting with the beginning.

I got home around 9pm Friday night and, minutes later, was greeted by a 5 year old who gives the worlds greatest hugs (sorry, Nicholas). She had just gotten back from running errands with my mom and leapt out of the van as I ran out the front door. We have such great reunions. 

The plan for that night was for Ciara to dye my hair. 

HOLD UP. 

I am extremely picky about my hair. I trust one person in the world to cut it, and since I'm usually so busy when I'm home, I've only had 2, maybe 3 haircuts since August of 2008. My bangs have grown out. My hair has grown out. On several occasions I've developed temporary accidental annoying dreadlocks. And I somehow stopped brushing it regularly. I'm probably going to beauty hell for that one. I just got into the routine of throwing in a couple of bobby pins and walking out the door, maybe occasionally braiding it. ANYWAY, I may take terrible care of my hair, but a) Angie is the only person allowed to take scissors withing 15 inches of my hair, and b) I've only dyed my hair once, on November 1st, 2009, and it was a Navajo Bronze colored, temporary, 28 washes dye. (Which lasted significantly longer than 28 washes.) And that was slightly nerve-wracking, but I did it.

So last week I decided, on a whim, that I should dye my hair. Or tip it, rather, as I eventually plan on donating this hot mess to someone who would brush it more often. I figured this was essentially my mid-art-school-life-crisis. Which I feel like I have a lot of, and this is a little late in the game, but the point is, I have one year left to be excused for almost anything stupid I do. After that, "I go to art school" is both a lie and weird. So I figured I'd dye my hair.

Are we caught up now? Ok, good.

So when I got home from Cleveland, I scooped up Mia (yeah, right, to those who thought she would go to bed and miss out on this fun!) and took her to my grandma's house, where Ciara was housesitting with my cousin & friend, and where we proceeded to hang out in the basement and dye my hair.

I'll explain the rest with pictures. Sorry for being extra wordy and rambly.

This was the dark blue dye that Ciara picked out. She wanted a picture because it was so pretty mixed up.

Mia used my DSLR and took pictures. And since this was in a basement, and she's 5 years old, she had to use the flash a lot. Sorry, guys.

She was especially proud when she took this picture, and made sure to show everyone the "really cool shot she got." I was so proud of her.

And here's how the blue looked before rinsing. It's bleached at the ends, then there are two different blues painted in a gradient.

 The pink was Mia's favorite part. (Go figure.) I never thought I'd actually have pink hair. Or blue hair for that matter, but I actually considered pink hair at one point (when I was 12 and thought the whole Kool-Aid dye job was legit temporary), before deciding that it probably wouldn't work. Luckily, Ciara is a dye job guru.

Mia was so excited about all of this that we decided to give her a tiny little streak of pink in the back of her hair. Obviously we didn't ask my mom first. But it was super super light, and washed out the next day since her baby shampoo is so harsh. She still tells everyone it's still there.

She was so excited for this. Ciara pinned her hair back and put a towel around her. 

She was so serious. I loved it.

Actually, they were both really serious. 

Do you see that adorable face!?

This was a fun picture, with tinfoil in both Mia's & my hair. Unfortunately, a very long day led to extremely unflattering bags under my eyes (worse than usual), so please substitute this jackelope head for my face.

 

Mia really liked rinsing her hair out. She was so obedient the entire time. Probably because we told her it was a secret.

There's her pink right before rinsing!

And here's how mine turned out (sort of). 

Of course, this is before I showered (the awkward 24 hour waiting period before getting your hair wet at all despite the fact that it looks incredibly dirty).

So it looked like I had feathers in my hair a little bit, as Ciara pointed out. And it still does a little. 

But it definitely lightened a lot. Especially the pink. But I figure, since I have leftover dye, we'll do it again, and I'll let it sit longer and wait (awkwardly) longer before washing my hair the next day.

So anyway, I have pink and blue hair.