The back story.

Once upon a time, a girl with loooooong, flowing brunette hair decided to cut it all off. And then dye it blonde. And then dye it blonder. Ok you guessed, it was me.

I’ve had relatively long, dark brown hair for the majority of my adult life. I loved my hair. It was so much of who I was. Then I got bored of who I was and I cut it all off!

The very night I chopped about 10 inches off my hair, I'm not kidding, I left a good 10 inches on the hairdressers floor!

Then, as it got a little longer again, I decided to go a little lighter – I told you about that one here. Here are some of the snaps of me with lighter hair the day it got done….

I liked this version of blonde, it was subtle, but it still wasn't my brunette hair

The photo that changed it all.

I liked the subtle hints of blonde, for a while, then I started to pine for my long, luscious brown lock again… so I went blonder – duh!! I wanted more, I wanted to have that really obvious balyage look (which I am obviously TOTALLY not cool enough to pull off) I wanted blonder!

So I was ok with that for a little while, it took a bit of getting used to when I would catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, or when I would pull out a dress in a colour that used to look amazing on me as a brunette, and then didn’t sit so well with my lighter hair. Sometimes I felt like a faded version of myself – I know that sounds funny, but my dark hair was so strong and bold I missed that, but dealt with (and tried to embrace) the blonde…. and then I saw this photo…..

The pic that made me realise that as a blonde, I certainly do NOT have more fun

It is me and the boy on New Years Eve here in Brisbane. I know it might not be that bad to you guys, but all I see is straw yellow hair, and a complexion that does NOT match the hair. So practically the day after I saw the photo, I grabbed the bottle of my BROWN, BRUNETTE, NOT BLONDE DIY hair dye and covered that blonde!

The culprit - apologies to my hairdresser, he is going to KILL me for dying my hair back with a DIY job

The realisation.

As soon as I pulled the towel off my hair, I felt a sense of relief, a sense of coming home, and sense of finding myself again – “oh, there I am” I actually said out aloud to the mirror! I hadn’t realised how much my lighter hair was making me feel not like me. Going back to brunette instantly filled me with a confidence I had been lacking. I felt powerful, yet comfortable in my own skin again!

So look, I have tried the blonde thing (well kinda, I know it wasn’t platinum or anything, but it was blonde for me ok!) and I know that at least one of my friends has been listening to me harp on about how I would love to go “Elle McPherson” “honey blonde” some day (ring any bells AB?) but it just wasn’t me.

Meanwhile, my hairdresser is going to KILL me for using a home dyeing product to cover his FOUR HOURS of work in the chair it took to get me to blonde (I have A LOT of hair). BUT I had to do it! And I had to do it then and there, it was one of those decisions that you really should stop and think about but that I like to make on the spot (teaser alert: I have made another MAJOR decision that will give me plenty of blog fodder- but I can’t tell you just yet so watch this space…..)

Now, for those of you playing along at home, apparently it’s bad to dye over blonde hair with dark brown if you don’t know what you are doing…. so don’t do it ok? (I’m still paranoid it’s going to go green every time I jump in the pool for a swim!)

The moral of the story.

I’ve been brunette again for about a week now. I already feel thinner, sexier and more confident – funny how a hair colour can do that to you! I feel confident in my clothing and make up choices again (oh, and my eyebrows match my hair again too!) and even though he didn’t say it straight out, I think the boy likes me a brunette better (I know my mum certainly does, she DID say it straight out! And she’s a blonde!).

Here is me, back to my normal, brunette self – and loving it!

To be honest, this colour is a little dark for me but it will fade out a little, plus the boy said he likes it - always a good thing (I think I remind him of a Kardashian now, hey - that works for us!)

I know I shouldn’t worry about what other people think, and I don’t, but it is nice to have those around me also feel like that I am back to me. This is not to say that I won’t ever experiment with my hair ever again, come on, I’m a Sagittarian, I can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes without changing something.

I’m just glad for now that I’m in my own skin (or should I say hair) again, and I love it!

Have you ever made a major (or minor) change to your appearance that really wasn’t you? Did it take you going back to your original look for you to realise it? And most importantly, do blondes or brunettes have more fun?