Embracing Change

I am back, and with news... but this time, it's actually good news.

Also, my hair is blue! Sort of anyway.

I'll make you wait for the good news but first, a look at my journey to sort-of-blueness. 

I've always liked the idea of having "fun" hair- if you're going through the trouble to dye it, why settle on a normal hair color?? I've been terrified to take the plunge though because my hair is very fine and if genetics has anything to say about it (and of course, it usually does), it'll start to get dangerously thin soon enough. I have this (admittedly misguided) notion that if I'm nice to my hair, it won't abandon me and that coupled with the fact that I don't want to do anything that might ruin it- I need to be able to enjoy it while I have it!- has led me to have "virgin hair" for the first 31.5 years of my life. 

Recently though, I stumbled across a product called Overtone. They make hair dye that is essentially a tinted deep conditioner and there's a line specially formulated for people with dark hair that requires no lightening/bleaching. Of course, this means your hair isn't going to be a vibrant color but I mean, a dye that's actually good for my hair?? It's exactly what I've been looking for so I had to try it.

 

This is the one I got. I kinda wanted to do green (my favorite color!) but it was sold out. I love blue too though so that's the one I chose out of the 7 possible options. This is clearly a picture of the tub AFTER I used it, as evidenced by the blue smudges. I wish that was the only place I found blue smudges after my ordeal...

I have to admit, my nerve started to waver at this point. I mean, that's really freaking blue. On the plus side, it also smelled delightfully of herbs and made my hair smell nice for days afterward.

This is the before shot, not the best I'll admit. M assisted me with the photography and he was too busy laughing at me most of the time to get an especially good shots, for reasons you will see below. It's also freshly fully blow-dried with no products in it, hence the visible sad dryness. 

Here I am waiting for the color to process (about 15 minutes) after I globbed on about 3/4 of the tub, covered in blue, and rethinking all of my like choices while M cackled at my predicament in the background. My sister bought the orange dye and reported to me that it wasn't too messy and didn't stain so I wasn't as careful as I probably should've been because that blue all over my neck, back, and shoulders DID NOT IMMEDIATELY WIPE OFF. I thought I was a Smurf for life. I also dropped some dye on my sink and in my shower which required bleach to remove. Next time I do this, I'm forcing M to stand by with wet wipes to wipe it off my skin immediately. I'm sure he'll totally agree to that.

I was very careful to wear gloves when I put the dye on of course but didn't think anything of it when I rinsed it off in the shower... and of course dyed my hands blue. Here they are after I attempted to scrub it off.

This is a terrible picture of what it looked like afterward- I discovered that the blueness is super hard to capture in pictures. It's there though, I promise! Also, I was too impatient to see what it really looked like to do my normal air dry so I blow-dried it yet again. My poor curls. 
 

This picture from the Overtone website is a much better representation of what my hair looked like before and looks like now. It's much darker with a bluish tinge to it, especially visible in the sunlight. I absolutely love it! And I went dark just in time for spooky season.

I would most definitely do this again, despite the mess (which was mostly due to me being somewhat unprepared). I also got the daily conditioner which deposits blue in your hair so it should last a while, even though it wasn't cheap. It did make my hair soft and nice though, and when I run out of dye, it'll fade out naturally- no shocking roots. Who knows, I may even try a different color next!

[That all sounded a bit like a sponsored plug but I assure you, my enthusiasm is genuine and unpaid.]

Well, that's my blue hair journey for you. As promised, if you've stayed with me through all that, you will now be rewarded with good news.

Not only did I get the job I wanted as discussed in my last post, but I got the pay I wanted/deserved. 

If you don't want to go through the trouble of reading the last post, here's a quick recap: I went to a job interview, nailed it, they called me to ask if I wanted the job even before I left the parking lot, then HR decided I should get paid half of what I was initially told I would get because they felt my past experience didn't transfer despite clearly not really knowing what it actually was. 

I decided I couldn't let that stand and needed to write an email to HR but put it off until the next day so I could calm down a bit. I had M help me write a professional yet clearly disgruntled email (he's far more used to corporate emailing than me and his help was invaluable), copying the principal I interviewed with (did I mention the job was with an elementary school? Well, I am now if I didn't before). He emailed me back soon afterward, apologized for HR, and said he'd speak to them. The very next day I got a new offer email with the pay I was expecting and had a delightful conversation with the principal about how he knew I was perfect for the job and was excited to have me be part of the team.

What was initially a bad situation made me even more excited to start the job. The people I'm going to be directly working with fought to get me on board and already value what I'm bringing to the table- a super nice feeling, especially given how things have been at my current job. On top of that, I'm super proud of myself for not giving up and standing up for myself. In situations like this, I often get very anxious and overwhelmed and would normally opt to walk away and try again somewhere else. This time though, I decided I had had enough of applying to jobs and interviews and all that, so I wasn't going to give up that easy. And now, I've put in my two weeks notice and am excited to start a new adventure at the beginning of November!

Here's to embracing change!