Blondie

I had my partial foil appointment last night at 6pm. And, full disclosure, the girl that did it is still a student at the Greenwood Academy. My brow threader assured me that she is awesome, so I tossed the dice.

To say that I was nervous is an understatement. I had to hype myself up to go in the door. I say that I love changing my hair and doing different things, but underneath it all, I'm still the girl with the long, straight brown hair that really wants, "just a trim". I pushed all that aside though, and strode in on high heels with a big old purse for security.

After meeting the new stylist and settling into the chair, I started in on how hard my hair is to lighten and how it never wants to "lift" and that it takes forever and a day to get to the Debbie Harry blonde that I like.

She listened attentively, consulted with her instructor and got to work.

We chatted and time passed. I never feel nervous when the foils are on. I don't mind being under the hood dryer. I like looking at magazines. I am the picture of calm. But last, night, like always, the foils came off and she started blow drying my hair, and I started to panic. I am super high maintenance when it comes to any warmth or brassiness showing up in my blonde. I could see a trace of buttery color and we talked about whether I wanted to use toner. I decided against it, since it was 8:30pm, I was tired and I just wanted to go home. I was kind of freaking out because my hair looked really dry and yellow. I had to pull myself together to sign the credit card receipt, but the freaking out made my hand shake like I had just had brain surgery.

I sprinted home and immediately grilled Aaron about how it looked. He said it looked ok, but it would be easier to assess once I had styled it myself. So, I had a fitful night of sleep, dreamed of driving up steep, water logged hills to Holland with my brother (not sure what that's about.) Then, I got up this morning all bleary-eyed and slopped on a bunch of Aveda Blue Malva conditioner to tone out the yellow, then washed and styled as usual.

Well, kids, the Blue Malva saved the day and I think I'm ok with the end result. It looks a little Heidi Montag mixed with Gwen Stefani blonde, but it's definitely brighter, which was my ultimate goal. Will I go back to her again? Probably not. The whole experience was too stressful and even though it was cheap ($50 before tip!), I think I need a little bit more pampering in the way of a cup of tea and nice art on the walls and a little less instructor "Hair check!"

Since I'm a self proclaimed free agent now, for my next foil, I think I will sample some of the other fine salons that Seattle has to offer. Do you have any recommendations?