By 
Until a few years ago I had really beautiful long hair. It was the kind of hair that people would stop me on the street to comment on. It was thick and wavy and a stunning caramel blonde. But one day, I can’t exactly pinpoint what prompted me, I decided to go blonder. Looking back, maybe it was a new job? Divorce? go out again? Do you feel too much like a mom? My fear of getting old? Once the decision was made, however, there was no going back. I decided to dye my hair at home on my own. Not in itself a big deal since I had a cosmetology license; but did I mention that I never worked as a hair colorist?
Well, my hair turned out great and everyone loved it. So the next time I decided I’d go a little bit blonder and the next time blonder then one day I decided I was too blonde and I wanted another change so I went red then blonde again and then darker a lot more dark on my own. , without the advice of Clairol color experts, or old beauty business buddies, no, not me with the beauty license, I was saving tons of money doing it myself, plus I was too proud to ask for advice, or did I embarrassed? Or afraid that they would tell me to drop the box and call a hair salon that specializes in color correction. With the darker color on top of the already damaged light blonde, my hair turned green!
That’s when the problem really started, because I became obsessed with fixing it. I figured just one more trip to the late night drugstore for one more box in a shade that would bring out all that brown would fix it. I had become addicted to the lure of hair color’s 20 minute instant makeover power. Regardless of what was going wrong in my life, I was sure that changing my hair color would fix whatever ailed me.
Thankfully, I survived the emotional meltdown of my brief but harrowing hair color obsession and eagerly sought out an amazing professional hairstylist and amazing friend for some damage control. His advice went something like this: “You could go around looking like a blonde hooker or we can cut it off and you can start from scratch, you’ve got the face for it.” In the end I went for the haircut and was relieved to have less hair to tempt me to dye it.
The irony of this story is that in a world of long hair, my very, very short hair (think Pink, Mia Farrow from Rosemary’s Baby, or Brigitte Neilson or now Victoria Beckham) has been unexpectedly liberating. I no longer spend time working on my hair, I’m out the door in half the time, I need less makeup, and people tell me I look younger and more modern. That’s what very short blonde hair does for you; if it suits you, it’s a look. Although it is not for everyone, but for me there have been valuable lessons learned. One, you don’t have long or short hair, if your life is missing something, find out what it is and fix it from the inside. Two, when it comes to drastically changing your appearance, seek out an expert for advice no matter what the cost.