So Hair's the full story...

So when I was posting pics of the bad hair cut, I was doing my darnedest to make them as flattering as possible. But in the interest of full disclosure, I will show you exactly how crappy of a cut it was.

This is me a few weeks ago after the bad cut, before we fixed it. This was probably the best it looked over that interim time without using hot rollers or the cop-out ponytail. Usually it didn't even look this good.

(Back story to very new readers - a month ago I went to someone new for a hair cut and it was awful - he talked me into layers - they cut the layer - yes, singular - about twice as short as he said he would and then, before I could stop it, proceeded to "texturize" my hair - which you never, ever, ever do to straight fine hair. The multiple "wow, you're hair really *is* straight comments he made should have been the sign to send me running. So the end result was a cut that took much longer to style and didn't look as good unless I gave it major heat damage. And gave me frizzy hair, which I never had before.  Nice, real nice.)

At a distance, it's not too bad. A bit shaggy looking, a bit scraggly. Of course, after going out in the humidity, it went fuzzy because of the awful "texturizing" the bad stylist did. I think the logic was that I was supposed to start flat ironing my hair. But why would I add extra heat damage that I didn't need to? and wouldn't that flatten the volume that the texturizing was supposed to create.

Here are the close ups:

Yes, they do look like mug shots.

So you can see, as the next stylist pointed it, he basically cut 1 layer, and then left the remaining hair in a heavy blunt cut, with fuzzy edges from the texturizing.

But the upside...I got a call from the manager at the salon, since I had only given them a 7 out of 10 on the online survey (kind of me, I thought) wanting to know how they could have improved my experience. After I very politely explained how bad the cut was, she offered to refer me to another stylist for a complimentary cut to fix it. Which was nice and the right thing to do. (Of course, I was still out an extra $15 since I tipped the new stylist because it was the right thing to do.)

So Sue agreed that the cut was really bad and didn't work with my hair and we basically chopped 3" off the bottom to bring the length up close to the "layer". She even asked if I'd had the frizziness before and when I said "no," she was like "oh, wow."  And so now I have to wait a year or so for the fuzzy texture crap to grow out.

So here's the new cut, which I'm still getting used to, but it's much easier. And it's fun to have my hair at a shorter length for a bit. I may even keep it for a while.

But in the meantime, I have my hair products to help me out. I've been using both of these products for about 6 months and have been really happy, so I thought I would share.

First up:  Umberto Blow Dry Lotion ($9.99 at Target). Grab it when you see it because it always sells out at my Target. And shoot, I should have looked when I was there this morning.

I love this product because it does a little bit of everything - heat protection, smoothing, and hold - so you get all that in 1 product instead of having to layer.  My mom just got some after I recommended it and I think my sister did too.  I have been bouncing around trying out different serums, cremes, mousses, whatever, and this one seems to be spot-on perfect for my hair.  And it's not expensive. 

Next, we have:  Tresemme 24-hour Body Finishing Spray.  This is available at most drug stores, grocery stores, Target, Walmart, etc.  And it's cheap.  What I really like about it is that it's not quite as heavy as a true hair spray but it helps hold and protect your style.  Kind of like a hair-spray-light.  And I do need help holding that volume in my hair..even with the fuzzies. 

So that's the full story on the hair cuts...and I'll try to stop whining about my hair for a while...because if it's boring me, goodness knows it's got to be boring you.