I'm one to tell you that I express myself through hair.
The fascination of changing my naturally dark brown hair rooted (no pun intended) from my curious amount of grey hairs I developed since high school. I was self conscious of it, but I also had fun with it. To this day I don't know how to use a curling iron. If I ever want to curl my hair, I use a flat iron. My hair is super straight though so keeping it curly is always a task.
Let me give you a break down of the journey my mane has gone through.
Late 2011/Early 2012 - Red, Red, Wine.
I tell everyone that this was my "bad girl" phase.
I was pretty depressed while living in Korea Town in Los Angeles for a countless amount of reasons & wanted to spice up my life and did so with the help of my talented friend Marshall Bang, I kept my hair this color for a minimum of 6 months. My hair stayed fairly healthy but I sacrificed days of not washing my hurrrr. #noshame I used baby powder every other day and took lots of showers with a shower cap. I definitely felt more bold about a lot of things but wanted to have the freedom of wearing green again without looking like Christmas.
Just kidding. I just got over it and the upkeep was getting $$$.
You can see my hair in "One Day" music video as well.
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Mid 2012 - Ombre on ya
Marshall changed me up once again.. isn't he brilliant? But by this time my hair was fried.
With all the re-coloring my hair had gone through with my red it was starting to give up.
You can see what my hair looked like NOT curled in my "Common, Simple, Beautiful" music video. And as I said earlier, I suck at curling hair and plus my hair felt like it was dyinggggggg everytime I even tried to put any heat to it so I decided I had to just.. get rid of it all.
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Late 2012 - Short & starting over
Yep so I just cut it all off!
I had gone short before in college with an A-line cut but knew that if I never cut it this short that I would always wonder. My friend Yoshi who was working at Etude Salon in K-Town at the time and he was someone I knew I could trust with the cut.
Tip: There's nothing wrong with having separate stylists for coloring & cutting.
I felt exhilarated & free. I felt like I could start over but it would take a lot of time and patience to embark on this new chapter in my life in more ways than one. I was on my way to leaving for Korea for a singing competition show, but greater than that I was about to learn so much more about myself and reunite with my dad I hadn't seen in 10 years.
Early 2013
My hair was growing and back to its healthy state. I was also in a healthier place with my soul.
In Korea I learned to forgive my father and was literally in my own world. My dad didn't live in Seoul, so a lot of the time I commuted 2 hours one way just to get to the city and see friends or work (tutoring & radio job) It also helped that I didn't really feel like I had to impress anyone. I remember declaring out loud that my husband wasn't in Korea and I was completely right. It was all about me finding solace & growth!
Mid 2013 - Married-do
Little did I know, I'd soon meet my husband through Instagram in January - him being in Atlanta, me being in Seoul.
In February I met him for the first time in Atlanta and got engaged.
In April we said our "I Do's"
Believe it or not that's my hair still less than shoulder length but my friend Krystal did such a beautiful job making my hair look full in an up do.
Late 2013 - Bang Bang!
I always wanted to give this a shot too and my hair was looking plain jane. It really isn't my favorite because I have the roundest face in the world but it gave me some pizzazz.
Current: Early 2014
I got me a steam perm to add some volume to my hair as it's still growing to the length I know it's destined to be. If you're in Atlanta, I totally recommend Jinju from Pika Pika Hair Salon in Duluth, GA.
This week I have an appointment to get my hair colored because I haven't since I got married.
I was referred to Julie from Pika Pika Hair Salon so I'll write an update on how that goes! My grays be taking over, yo.
I hope this post inspires you to try out new things that you've always wanted to. Things like hair grows back don't be so scared of what others might think and try it for yourself. You might also want to consider thinking about why you want to make some drastic changes in your life. Changing the color of your hair isn't going to be the end of you, but it can be huge when you have a revelation that something deeper is going on in your heart that you seem to want to express outwardly. To this day, whenever I see someone with red hair, a part of me always shoots back to when I had the same colored do and what I was going through. I wonder if they're going through anything similar. *shrug Who knows? I just know I'm in a better place and I have no regrets because even through these pictures I can tell I am constantly evolving.
What colors have you tried?
What color do you think I should try next?
Comment below!
Thanks for reading ;)
Songfully yours,
Ever since I started coloring my hair religiously, the biggest thing to keep my hair healthy and have the color last longer has been not wash it often!
