Lately I’ve become painfully aware why so many new mom’s chop their long hair in favor of something more manageable. I’ve lost count of the number of times that Brennan has barfed in mine in recent weeks, or that his drool covered fingers have become tangled in my hair. I’ve had knots that I’ve almost had to cut out. Putting my hair back in a clip has been an exercise in futility as well. Ashton thinks it’s a very fun game to pull the clip from Mommy’s hair (and painfully, my hair along with it). Then he will either proceed to break the teeth off the clip, or hide it altogether. Sure I could just pull it back in a ponytail holder, but I stopped thinking that ponytails looked good around middle school.

So… yesterday for my birthday I decided to treat myself to a GOOD haircut and professional color. I’ve only had GOOD haircuts about 4 times in my life (when I say GOOD, I mean expensive), and never had my hair colored by a pro (though I’ve used the box stuff for years). The rest of the time it’s been Supercuts or something similar. In theory, the haircut quality should go up as the price goes up. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for any of my salon experiences.

I came prepared with some photos of a few styles I liked, that were realistic for my hair type and limited ability to style it (both lack of time and lack of abillity). I was looking for a compromise between the long hair I desired, and the short no-style dos that scream “mommy”. I was pleasantly optimistic at the start of my styling session, because I felt like the stylist really listened to what I wanted and asked good questions.

In the end I got a decent haircut. Unfortunately it looks nearly the same as  what I normally get at Supercuts, even though it was clear that the technique and skill of the stylist were of much higher caliper. My big complaint is the hair color. I told the stylist I wanted a strawberry blonde. Not red, not anything else. It seems that they didn’t really have the color in their collection that I wanted and she talked me into something else that made logical sense. She dyed the base color to almost match my natural color (a dirty blonde, almost light brown) except a little warmer. This way I wouldn’t be a slave to the six week touchups as my roots grow out, because they would blend. She then applied a highlight color that was as close to strawberry blonde is they had. I didn’t realize that she was also applying a third color.

The end result is that I have the almost strawberry blonde near my roots, which will not blend with my natural hair color as the roots grow out. This fades into the brownish color, that becomes darker as it reaches the tips of my hair, making my hair look burnt at the ends. Then there are some streaks of blonde framing my face, but I think it looks like white/grey hair.

So, the end result is that I now have hair that looks dirty even when it’s clean. And though it’s short enough to miss the flow of spit-up during over the shoulder burp sessions, there’s still plenty to be grabbed by gooey baby hands.

Looks like I’ll have to live with this for a while though. At $160 not counting tip, I’ve exhausted my normal hair budget for an entire year.