Boring today, copper tomorrow

warning: this is a kikay post. and since i’m really happy with my new hair, it’s going to be rather long.

my valentine salon date with rina was superfun. because aside from the fact that rina is superfun, the stylists at azta urban salon (owned by rina’s sister’s boyfriend) seemed rather thrilled to be coloring virgin hair.

one thing that tells me i’m going to stick to a hairstylist is if they don’t tell me to straighten and relax my hair. This is presumably because all the cuts they know how to do are for typical, stick-straight filipina hair. four years ago, a stylist at bench fix told me, “ayaw mo ba talagang ipa-relax ito? kasi kaya ko siyang gupitan, pero hindi magiging maganda.” i have never had my hair cut at a bench fix salon ever again.

i’ve also gotten similar comments from other salons, like “kahit anong gawin kong gupit, hindi magiging maganda sa ganitong buhok”. those godforsaken salons just totally lost my business, which may not have been much when i was a lowly student, but now that i’m earning actual money… nek nek nila!

i love jenny, my regular stylist at my favorite salon, profiles, because she has never ever had a problem with my wavy hair, and never once suggested that i have it relaxed. (and she gave me the bangs that first got marlon to notice me at blue roast.) which got her my faithful patronage for three straight years.

sheila (azta’s stylist, not my sister) gets my nod for choosing a cut and color to bring out the waves, plus encouraging me to grow my hair long because, she says, wavy hair looks great when it’s long. she also says i’m one of the lucky few who won’t ever have the icky, dry, processed s-bend curls that are the current rage among everyone and her mother.

sheila presented me with two options: a simple one-color dye job of copper gold, or a lighter base color with dark lowlights. i read all these girlie magazines, so i thought i knew exactly what the difference between highlights and lowlights are. but for some reason the thought of the second process had me terrified. so, copper gold it was – at least until i get used to living with colored hair.

so here it is. before and after.

before: wavy, almost all one length, boring brown-black
after: voila! still wavy (even more so, thanks to layers galore), warm copper gold

parlor gays salon divas

and because i'm extra vain i love you guys so much, i took a whole bunch of pictures at home so you can see more of the new color.

i took an especially long time to dress this morning, until i realized that i was following this subconscious impuse to DRESS TO MATCH MY HAiR. that’s exactly the kind of idiotic kapraningan a hair virgin like me would make. so i quit it.

i was also especially praning that my eyebrows are now too dark for my hair (again, this strong impulse to match everything, which i probably get from my mother), and that i wouldn’t look like myself. thankfully, my sister reassured me that my eyebrows look perfectly normal.

oh, and i must still be recognizable, since i saw my favorite jun-jun in the lobby this morning. and right before the elevator door closed, he peeked in and gave me the cutest, tiniest wink.

i love my new hair.