Another one of my hair brained ideas...

Sometimes it's just better to laugh at yourself. I gave myself an opportunity to do just that this weekend. It's laugh or cry... so I choose to laugh.

I feel the need to give you some background before I tell you the funny stuff. When I was young my hair was blond, the older I got the darker it became. So when I was about twenty I started to dye it a lighter blond color.

I continued dying my hair until I got pregnant with my son. My hair grew fast while I was pregnant so it didn't take long for the dyed part to grow out. I was left with my mousy brown color and I didn't really like it at all but I was too busy with a new baby and I didn't have time to deal with hair color.

When my son was four months old we moved into the country, with well water, iron laden well water. My hair started to have a weird metallic reddish orangish color to it. I hated it even more, so I tried a little lighter shade of dye on it. That was a bad idea, it turned more orange tinged. I used special shampoos but they didn't completely remove the color produced by the iron. I gave up and resigned myself to being mousy brown, reddish orangish for as long as I lived here.

Then a few months ago we had a water filter system installed. Hallelujah! My sinks, tubs and toilets where no longer stained an icky rust color. My hair also improved, but it still wasn't what I really wanted.

I wanted highlights.

I wanted shiny pretty hair.

So Friday night I picked up a do it yourself highlight kit from the store.

It looked so simple on that box, it said to mix, apply and wait.

Easy smeazy... I could do that. Plus I am so frugal (cheap) I would be saving so much money by doing it myself.

As I began applying I had a bad feeling. This wasn't so easy to apply. It wasn't going on as smoothly as I thought.

Oh it's ok I told myself. It will be fine.

I set the timer and waited, my husband and child looked at me uneasily.

When the time was right I rinsed it out. I looked in the mirror. Hmmmm maybe when I dry it it will look ok.

As I dried my hair, it became very clear that I did not have even highlights.

I did not achieve the desired effect.

I was not going for the cheetah or leopard splotchy look that I now had.

Ok.. panic was setting in... crap I can't go out like this. Maybe it's not THAT bad.

I call for hubby to take a look.

I can tell by the look on his face that it's WORSE than I thought.

"Ummm it's not really even" he stammered.

Oh great, just great.

"Why don't you call the salon and have them fix it" he suggests.

"I don't want to spend that much money on my stupid hair!" I protest.. dang it, why am I so cheap??

"I'll pay for it" He insists.

Oh Crap, it's worse than I thought.. he now wants it fixed so bad that he is going to pay for it.

"I'm too embarrassed to go in there!" I cry... but I know I have too. It's that or wear a hat until it grows out.

I called the salon "So is there anyone available to fix a home highlight job gone terribly wrong?"

I must have sounded really desperate and sad or they must have wanted a good laugh at my expense because they squeezed me in even though they were booked.

I was lucky enough to get someone who loves to do highlights and she fixed it.

I'm still getting used to it, the highlights are a little lighter than I had wanted but that's my own dang fault. The hair dresser now has a client for life.

Here is the result, the color is actually a little different than the pictures but I'm not going to take anymore pictures of myself today!