It's like a mood ring...

...on my head.

Per Ky's request, I will jot down a "tiny" blog about my hair.

I have been dying it since I was 14. My hair has ROY G BIV pretty much covered: ranging from platinum blonde to violet-tinted black, with some strawberry-blonde & neon green (well, it glowed neon green under florescent lighting...) thrown in for good measure.

You see, when I was 11, my sister was diagnosed with Cancer & I spent the next 9yrs working with children with cancer & their siblings. I realized at a relatively young age that hair really doesn't hold much value in the grand scheme of things. I had moments where I would have been fine shaving it off, honestly. But I never did. The one thing I could do was give it its rightful place as an "accessory" in my life, rather than a staple.

That said, I ended up with an addiction. To hair colour. Sad, eh?

But it's fun! Basically, my hair changes with my mood. Thus the title of this post, haha. I'm so witty!

I went a few years in my mid-twenties with my natural colour, but then I went to see the movie Troy. Ang & I were running late (my fault) to meet Graison at the theatre, I hadn't looked into a mirror all day & my vanity got a hold of me, so I did a quick check. My hair was about 2-4 inches long & it was raining that day... I literally felt like I had a Q-tip on my head when I left for the movie! 3hrs later, immediately after the film ended, Ang & I ran to the bathroom and as I was washing my hands there it was: A GRAY PATCH. what??? I blame Brad Pitt.

So after a couple months of "the patch", I broke down and dyed it - a really dark brown, the darkest my hair had ever been. And I loved it! Every 6wks or so, I would dye it a new shade of brown & the shades were so obviously different from one another that the ladies in the back of the church would play the "I wonder what Steph's hair will look like THIS week" game - all in good fun, of course! :)

I found that I really liked having dark hair & eventually found a great colour that I used for a couple years... pretty crazy, eh? And then I moved to Ireland. After 6months of RAIN, RAIN & oh wait! MORE RAIN, I needed a change. So I went to my safe place: the hair.

Highlights it was!

Then I moved back to Canada & found a stylist with reasonable rates who was willing to give me the violet-black I decided I wanted. And I kept that for a whole 6months or so, until I moved to the Carolinas...

Apparently, the sun & the heat got to me & I went back to blonde. For 6months.

See a pattern? Or two?

Last month, I went into the salon not knowing whether to keep the blonde or go back to black... I decided that if I can't decide, then I'll make a drastic change. wow. That says a lot about my personality right there!

But after only a couple weeks as a brunette, I am learning that it's not only the moods that determine my hair colour, it's also the weather. I went back to black after several months of cold, gray, wet (& tiny bits of snowy) weather. I associate cold with brunette in my head, apparently.

But what I have learned in the past month is that warm, humid sunshine brings out the blonde in me for several reasons: easier upkeep - the sunshine (& chlorine from pools) wreaks havoc on the black hair, the humidity is really bad on my scalp (weird, eh?) and black hair just magnifies any flakes & makes me paranoid, and to be honest, blonde looks better with a tan - something I do not have right now, so black is okay for a while.

So, in conclusion, I have multiple personalities that can all be found in the colour of my hair!

Apparently, Canadian Steph is a brunette, Irish Steph is split-personality & Carolina Steph is a blonde, experimental Steph is neon green, insecure Steph is a redhead, and happy Steph bounces between blonde & black, depending on location (see above).

Unlike most people, I don't colour my hair because I want to feel better... I colour my hair because I feel good & want to express my happiness.

And there's a little more SS psychoanalysis than you expected! You're welcome :)


(this month's shade)

Love,
SS