Going Dark...

I swore off clothes shopping and replacing makeup for the days and weeks leading up to my hair appointment. With brunette hair, I would have a whole new color palette that I was going to have to get used to.

I walked into my stylist, Anna’s, salon ready to go dark. I was excited, but nervous all at the same time. Not nervous that it wouldn’t turn out beautiful, but nervous because the change still seemed so drastic. Anna mixed up 4 different colors to reach the right hue. Very dark, but not black, and enough cool and warm tones to not make my fair skin washed out. I had fleeting worries of looking gothic (you know, fair skin, dark hair, black clothes etc). Then I reminded myself that I wore mostly business suits, and had no piercings nor tattoos or ripped fishnets to speak of. I would not be mistaken for a goth teenager. Whew.

I looked in the mirror with bittersweet results. I loved it. But it was a change. A huge change, and I was going to need the confidence to pull it off. I knew that in the days and weeks now to come everyone and their brother (and likely sister) would come up to me to remark on my hair. That thought just felt so vain. For that reason, I’ve kept things simple. No need to distract people with a new hair cut, etc. But here I am with the most drastic color change of all.
After Anna dried my hair, I hugged her and knew immediately what I had to do. Run to Sephora! That’s right. Thankfully, I had the foresight that I might look a tad weird with my blondish eye brows if they didn’t match my hair. So I beelined to Sephora for an eyebrow pencil by Anastacia (the only eyebrow pencils that a girl should have) for a pencil that was nearly 4 shades darker than my previous one. Wow. I also realized that my previous blush and eyeshadow worked much better for me as a blonde, and I had to start investing in a new color palette. My hands were shaking as I talked to the make up artist at Sephora.

“I used to be a blonde. I mean, I was a blonde up until an hour ago…. I just need to look like a brunette.” Seriously, I wish I was more eloquent, but I was quite shell shocked (excited, but still shell shocked).

I looked, well, different. Different in a good way, but it would take some getting used to. Anna warned me that my hair color might fade after three washes, as I had so much blonde in it before. She scheduled a follow appointment. But looking in the mirror at my very dark hair, I had a hard time imagining it fading.