lush blow dry bar

I told you that last weekend we celebrated Reese's 27th birthday.  The big surprise to kick the evening off was a visit to Lush Blow Dry Bar.  I asked a hair friend of mine (remember Brittany?) if she could style our hair for our night out.  She informed me that she had recently moved to Lush and could get us appointments there.  Of course, I said yes!

We told Reese prior to her birthday celebration that the one requirement for the night was that she needed to put her hair up in a bun.  She responded with, "Well, then do I need to wear specific shoes too?"  She was confused.  Mission accomplished.

What we didn't realize is how nice it would be to get ready for an evening out without having to do our hair.  You guys, do you know how long it takes me to put clothes on and throw a bit of mascara on my lashes?  Like 4 minutes.  (That is, if my clothes are picked out.)

We walked in and Reese was so excited to find out we would be getting our hair done.  We each have very difficult hair for very different reasons.  Sara's hair is crazy long and crazy thick.  Doing her hair is a workout.  Although Reese's hair is curlier than mine, we both have coarse, wispy-ish hair.  One drop of humidity and it shrivels back up into its original wave or curl.  Having someone do our hair is a huge gift.

We each got the full blow out which includes a shampoo, blow dry, and style.  We had a great time chatting it up while the wonderful Lush ladies were hard at work.

 

Not inspired yet?  Check out the photos below.  These "before" pics were taken by Reese and I on separate occasions after blow drying our hair.  I think we both looked at ourselves in the mirror and thought, this must be documented.

If you go to Lush, these ladies will blow dry your hair and it will look styled before a curling iron even touches it.  I don't know how they do it.  After you get a blow out at Lush, you'll wonder why you've ever been allowed to operate a blow dryer.

The "after" pics were taken after the blow out and styling.  But I think Brittany spent a total of 5 minutes (or some other ridiculously small number) actually curling and styling my hair.  The money is in the blow out, y'all.

Here's one last before and after:

Now I need to figure out an excuse for Colt to let me go again.

(Not only do they offer drinks and snacks, but they have a charging station for your phone.  Details, details.)

Lush is located in Nichols Hills Plaza.  Their grand opening is next Thursday, however, they are taking appointments now.  Check out their website for more details on what styles and little extras they offer.  Also, scroll down to the bottom of their website and you can enter to win a year of free blowouts.  

By the way, this is not a sponsored post.  I just had such an enjoyable experience that I wanted to share.  I hope some of you will try it out!

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hair color gone wrong

I've held out on writing this post for a long time now.  I'm not sure why.  I guess it's because I don't really know if I have the words to correctly describe this whole experience.  But it's definitely worth attempting.

Background Information:  I was dating a guy.  He mentioned once that blonde highlights might look cool in my hair.  I got blonde highlights.  I broke up with this guy.  I didn't want blonde highlights anymore.

So, here we are.  It was the fall of 2003 (my senior year) on a school night.  Sara, Katie, and I were at Katie's house and we had just bought some box hair color at Walmart.  I'm not sure if Katie ended up doing anything to her hair or if she was just offering moral support (which, you'll find out later, I really needed).  Sara chose caramel highlights.  I chose a dark brown color with an auburn tint.  (Those of you that do hair or are just smart when it comes to hair color already know how this ends ... but just hold on.)

Peggy, Katie's mom and someone who was very experienced with box color, did the color on our hair.  Sara's result was great.  It looked natural and lovely.  I was next.

This is where I have a hard time.  I'm not quite sure how to describe the color that had taken over my thick head of hair.  It was something like this ...

plus this ....

plus this ...

If you think those hair colors are even remotely cute, that's fine.  I'll agree ... they actually look pretty decent on the girls' faces.  But, people, it's me.  I'm not an edgy-rocker-punk kind of person and certainly wouldn't have been able to pull this look off in high school.

I was completely and utterly convinced that my life was over.  So were Katie and Sara.  However, they didn't let on to this at the time.  They kept smiling and saying, "We can fix it, we can fix it!"  I found out later that while Peggy was fixing my hair with box after box of hair color, they were in the other room admitting that they had no idea how this was going to turn out.

Do I have a picture?  Of course not.  This coloring experience was a pretty big regret.  But an even bigger regret is that I have no photo to show for it.

All I can say is thank goodness for Peggy and the 3 boxes of dark brown that saved my life.  Because of those boxes, I ended up with dark brownish, blackish, purpleish hair.  Trust me, it was a huge step up from carrot top red-orange.  My parents were a bit frustrated that I got home at 3am on a school night but I guarantee you if they would've seen the first color, they would've sent me right back.  It's not a great picture, but here's what I looked like pretty soon after my hair dying trauma.  In fact, I think it might've been the next day.

The process of getting back to my natural hair color was quite the journey.  I kept my hair short so that I could keep chopping off the red that continued to creep back into my hair.  I'm not sure how many times I put more brown in it, but it was a lot.  Here I am at my high school graduation ... one step closer to my original color.

My hair was officially back to normal once I started my freshman year of college.  So ... it was a full year of janky hair.

Lessons learned: 1.  Don't put anything red or tinted red on anything blonde.  2.  Take pictures of really ridiculous things so you can laugh later.

gray hair on a gray day

(P.S.  That's not my hair.)

I got (or at least noticed) my first gray hair in college.  I started seeing little flecks of silver and as I moved closer to the bathroom mirror, I was shocked to find that I, a 20 year old, had gray hair.  I blamed it on my stressful music major life.  Or maybe I was just graying early.  Who knows.

So, what did I naturally do when I first saw these new little friends?  I plucked them out, of course.  Then I learned some little fact where if you pull out one gray hair, 2 more grow in its place.  I'm not sure if it's true, but I don't think leaving them in would have saved me from a whole lot of gray hair.  I was destined for it.

I was eventually over the phenomenon of having gray hair and I didn't think anything about it.  But, I do think it got worse as I experienced my first 3 years of teaching.

I'm really not embarrassed by it.  I mean, sure, it might've been nice to not start this whole process in the prime of my life, but oh well.  I've come to embrace it. 

One day while I was out, someone said to me, "Is the gray in your hair natural?"  Would someone really pay to get this done?  Would someone intentionally put gray on their young head of hair?  I guess I don't know of these people.  I answered, "Unfortunately, Yes."  She was sweet and added that she thought it looked "really cool."

So, just if you guys were wanting to know ... I have some gray hair.  And I'm pretty cool.  Any other 20somethings in the gray hair club already?

top 6 things about fall break mornings

Each break or day off I have, I'm reminded of so many things that I wish I could see or had time to enjoy every morning. Here are the top 6:

1. Waking up at 8:15 a.m. - That's nice. But along with that, waking up at a time when the sun is beginning to shine through my window is even nicer. It makes me feel like I'm getting up with the rest of the world, rather than in the pitch black. Also, there's more potential for tripping over things in the dark .... getting up early + tripping over things makes for a very grumpy Claire.

2. Feeding the dogs - Dogs are always in a good mood. They want to see you, play with you, lick you, etc. On every day that I work, feeding the dogs is Colt's job. Why? Because I'm grumpy, remember? I barely get up in enough time to make it to work so I'm definitely not going to go spend time with the dogs.

3. Going on a run - I try to run 3-5 times a week, but lately it just hasn't happened. I promised myself I would get into my running routine once I 'got in the swing of things' with school starting back. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's been a full 9 weeks of school and the 'swing of things' is not happening. I'm going to have to go off on this for a bit.

Running before school is optimal, but barely possible. Running after school is terrible, but totally doable.

Morning runs are my favorite, but as a low-maintenance girl (when it comes to getting ready, at least), thinking of showering, drying my hair, and doing my hair ALL in one chunk of time is miserable. All of that ... before work? I take showers at night so my hair dries while I sleep. It's multi-tasking, people.

"Why don't you go to school with your hair wet?" I had an adjunct professor at OBU that came to school with wet hair in 2 braids every day. Not doing that. "Why don't you just run and not wash your hair when you're done?" Hilarious. I am a sweater. Not a winter clothing piece ... I sweat immensely when I exercise. My hair is drenched, so no, that is not an option. Running, showering, and all that comes with that is not a good routine for my typical morning. Today, however, it's a lovely routine.

4. Watching Ellen - Do I even have to explain why? She's hilarious!

5. Sleeping while Colt leaves for work - I know, I know, it sounds really selfish, but Colt would prefer it this way as well. I'm in a much better mood if this happens! There's something about getting up in the pitch black by yourself and seeing your husband sleep (even if it is just for 10 more minutes). Colt is a morning person ... in other words, he's crazy. He loves mornings and wants to chit-chat when I want to moan and groan and say no words. I always tell him that I could love mornings if I could get up later. Maybe when the SUN is shining?? Anyway, sleeping after Colt is already up is just an all-around good idea.

6. Eating breakfast one bite at a time - What? Isn't that what I do every day? NO! I don't eat breakfast. I shove breakfast ... along with answering questions, replying to emails, taking student's money, writing receipts, filling out bus requests, taking attendance, etc. Yes, all of that happens at once and usually right when I walk in the door. I never knew as a vocal music teacher I'd need to also have business management skills along with being an accountant and a mom. Surprise! So today, I will eat my breakfast at my leisure.

Time to enjoy my Fall Break! I have about 38 things that I want to accomplish today and I can't wait!

many things

Sometimes I really want to write something here but I don't feel like I have any one thing on which to focus. That bothers me, so I don't write. Tonight, however, I don't mind.

It's now been 3 weeks into summer and I'm loving it. I taught a summer music enrichment class for the 2 weeks following the end of school and it was pretty fun. 14 kids, 3 hours, grades 1-6. It was a bit tricky trying to figure out how to appeal to all of them at once, but I think I started to figure it out.

My hair is straight. Those of you that have known me for any length of time at all know that my hair has always been crazy curly. In the past year or so it has straightened out. At first, I thought it was just turning into wavy hair, but I was wrong. It is straight. I can probably count the strands of wavy hair on one hand. It's so strange for me. Why couldn't this have happened in middle school when I looked ridiculous and had no idea how to function with curly hair? Oh well, for a new season of life, a new season of hair.... I guess.

I started reading "The Shack" a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it. For you critics/cynics out there, you may want to give it a try. Don't put it in a box until you've read it. Right now, I'm really starting to relate to the main character, Mack. Some of his views/concerns/frustrations with God are ones that I've had or am still having; it's nothing that completely shatters my faith or belief, but just challenges it. Anyway, I'm interested to see where this whole story goes.

Colt and I have been recording like nobody's business lately trying to get this 2nd album done. Phil and Evan are done and we're basically just needing to record vocals at this point. It has been a long, drawn out process but I know it will be worth it. We're planning to have it done and in our hands in late July or early August.

I leave you with this. It is absolutely beautiful... the rich harmonies, clear voices, impeccable pitch. Please listen. :)