Too Many Self-Portraits

All my life when people have said I was a blonde I've quickly come back with "My hair is not blonde! I am definitely a brunette." And that's true... sort of. I have kind of "in between" hair. It's not really blonde, but it's also not brown—I guess a lot of people would call it a dirty blonde. In the summer my hair lightens to a golden blonde with almost pure white streaks, while in the winter it grows out to a light brown.

I just posted this picture the other day, but in our engagement pictures you can see the progression from darker brown to golden blonde to ash blonde. Clearly my hair had grown out several inches since the summer blonde!

Image via Niki Marie Photography

I didn't realize how dark my hair had gotten until I saw this picture from the marathon my sister ran several weeks ago. Ignore the part where I look like I've been up since 4:30 AM... I'd been up since 4:30 AM driving around a marathon course cheering "Way to go! Keep it up!" at every runner that passed by. Marathon spectating is hard work, you guys. (My sister rocked it!)

Personal photo

A week later I was in Walmart staring at a massive row of hair dyes, texting my sister (my other sister) "How the heck am I supposed to choose a dye??" I wanted something subtle that would give my hair some summer color without turning me into this.

Image via Woo Hair

Platinum blonde is not for me. Instead I went with a hair lightener that I spray on right before blow drying my hair. I figured at worst it was a waste of $3 and my hair doesn't look any different—at best I'll have hair two shades lighter. Because I'm an awesome blogger, I documented it by taking nightly self-portraits in the bathroom after drying my hair. (I shower at night, dry my hair, and style it the next morning. Ain't nobody got time to get up early to do all of that in the morning.)

Personal photo / Don't mock the tie-dye shirt I made in 11th grade Chemistry and still wear to bed every night.

Can you tell it's lighter? After seven days of use, people started to ask me if I've dyed my hair, and after ten days of use I was getting compliments on dyeing my hair—so I'm guessing yes. These pictures really don't show the subtle highlights in person, which I actually really like. My dad has red hair, and sometimes the red actually shows up a little with the golden blonde, as well as streaks of whiter blonde.

I think this is the color I want my hair to be for the wedding. I promised Mr. Lemur I wouldn't change the color anymore until he could see it anyway—which will be this weekend. But I think this is it! Of course I'm always open to suggestions...

Anyone dye their hair right before the wedding? Should I go lighter? Back to the darker brown? Anyone else feel really awkward taking self-portraits?