Recent pics!

It has occurred to me that it has been an awfully long time since the last time I blogged, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and clear out the images on my cell phone.  So here goes!

My retro-rific lunch at Johnny Rocket's (University and Euclid) this weekend.  Classic cheesburger, fries and a vanilla malt, all served in nostalgic surroundings with Elvis playing over the speakers.  Ordinarily I like local diners best, but this was closest and I was hungry.  Yum!

My weekend breakfast: a pear-apple, brie and honey crepe at Cafe Marcel on 4th Ave.  I don't know how I held off eating until I snapped this perfect pic because it was utterly scrumptious!  I am having a hot lavender mint tea with my crepe.  Beautiful cafe with a lovely outdoor seating area and the menu is just incredible!  You can also find them on Facebook here.

Meet my new ride!  It's a 1957 Challenger 500, a beach cruiser lovingly restored to life by the great folks at Bicas!  Along with recycling great bikes and giving them a second life, the folks at Bicas will offer their tools and expertise for $4/hour and offer classes to teach you how to take apart and maintain your bike.  I spotted this beauty among the bikes for sale and fell in love.  She is so much fun to ride and I now have my basket on the front so she is my primary commuting bike now!

Recent pic.  With the recent hair cuts, I'm pretty much back to my natural hair color.  I really did love going red but I love being a blonde again.  Less hassle and it lends itself to the classic bombshell look!

Hawaiian print time!

A series of shots from Monday.  I love this Hawaiian print shirt!  I love Hawaiian print in general but for some reason only the boys get the really cool patterns and the girl shirts I've seen are always insipid or ugly.  This one is the exception!  Martini glasses, cherries and tropical blossoms on a pretty pink background.  I love wearing my cherry earrings with this top.  I snagged the earrings from Hydra, a shop for leather, gothic and alternative wear in downtown Tucson; it's a fun store and definitely worth a visit!

I'm still mastering the self-portrait that shows my whole outfit!  As soon as I get that down you'll get the whole enchilada! :)

Playin' with the hairdo!

Gratuitous hair shots!

Beautiful Laguna vintage necklace; a Christmas present from Midji! <3

Red rose hair clip, "bulls eye" button earrings, pearl necklace, western top!

The Marilyn Monroe haircut

I went in to get my hair cut about a week ago.  I went to see Julieta at the El Rio Barber Shop (you can find directions here.)  Here is the picture I showed her:

Image originally seen at GreatHairStyleTips.com

I really like how it came out!  I was a little worried that it would be too short but now I'm thinking that the next time I go in I'm going to ask for another inch or so off.  It's a snap to style too!  I spend no more than maybe five to ten minutes with a big barreled curling iron and a quick spritz of hairspray and I'm good to go!  I'm tempted to lighten my hair just a tad since my roots are coming out lighter than the rest of my hair, but I'm really satisfied with this style!

I can't talk my hairdresser up enough!  Julieta did an amazing job and was such a pleasant stylist to work with!  Don't let the shops title of barber shop confuse you: they typically have at least two women stylists on staff who are more than happy to work on the ladies!  The prices are really reasonable, actually cheap when you consider the high quality of the work these ladies do.  And there are at least three barbers on staff at all times for the gents.  Will has gone in for a cut many times and swears by them.  So if you are in the west end of Tucson, stop in and get a cut!  You'll be glad you did!

Bleached!

Ok, so I took the plunge and lightened my hair this morning.  I don't think I'm going to allow myself to go through this again; the stuff not only stunk but made my eyes water.  My hair itself is extremely dried out.  I'm going to pamper it over the next couple of weeks before I use the ash color.  But the color itself is very flattering right now, sort of a strawberry blonde.  I was panicking while washing it out because it didn't seem to lighten at all, but it worked!  Maybe not quite as light as I was hoping and my roots will be lighter than the dyed parts once it grows out, but hey, I can deal with that.  No more monthly hair dying!  Yay!

Right out of the shower, starting to calm down after the initial panic!

Dried and styled!

The end of the red...

Eventually it had to come down to this.  Unfortunately I wasn't born a redhead and the pain of having to go through two weeks of blond roots followed by flushing all kinds of chemicals down my shower drain is getting too depressing to go on.  I've been trying to just let my natural hair grow out, but the ash roots are looking really bad (to me at least; my friends insist it doesn't look bad at all) and the red is stubbornly sticking to my hair despite deliberately trying to get it to fade.

I knew it would come to this.  Next time I want another color I'm buying a wig!

In the meantime I've decided to try something that may potential wreck my hair; I'm going to try to bleach out the red bits and then dye my hair a champagne blonde.  It's the closest match I can get to my original color and I seriously do NOT want to have to deal with roots.  I've heard horror stories about going this route, including the hair just falling out due to damage.  So I'm a little nervous!

Wish me luck!  I will post pics of my newly platinum head *fingers crossed* sometime tomorrow!