Show your real...hair.

Beauty? Not really my thing. 

I'm not trying to be all, "Don't look at me, I'm hid-eous!" I just mean that aside from nail polish, beauty products have never been my strong suit. I use Pantene shampoo because I always have...and...I own some sort of moisturizer that has SPF. That's about all I know. I somehow got the fashion bug (fashion gene? passion for fashion?) but I'm not a beauty product junkie in the least. I've always found it overwhelming...there are so many products out there, it seems impossible to keep up. Plus even if I could wade through the all the offerings, I'd still have to have the skills to use all that junk. Like I said...not my thing.

But just because I never became particularly knowledgeable or skilled in the beauty realm, doesn't mean I don't want to be beautiful. And specifically...I've always wanted to have long, thick, beautiful hair. Ugh, that sounds like the intro to a terrible infomercial.

Haven't you always wanted long, thick, beautiful hair? Of course you have! But now...you can!!

Ummmm...doubt it.
My hair has always been thin, and prone to breakage and two pregnancies haven't exactly helped. So I pretty much had come to terms with the fact that my hair was never going to be what I want it to be. Because no amount of browsing the shelves at Ulta for shampoos, gels, or ceramic straightening irons was going to give me what I needed- more hair.

I figured I had to accept my locks in life (hair pun!) or get extensions. And there was no way I was getting extensions. I mean...that's totally not my thing. They're expensive and complicated. Celebrities have them, not regular girls like me. (And by regular girls, I mean 30 year old moms who live in the suburbs and still use the same brand of hairspray from their childhood dance recitals...Oh gosh, who am I describing? What has become of my liiiiiife....?)

And besides, my thing is authenticity, I felt like couldn't do something so obviously fake. I mean, it's not like I'm some purity-obsessed mascara-shunning snob, but I just felt like hair extensions were shallow...Totally not hating on anyone who has them, I just couldn't quite get up the courage to admit that it mattered that much to me. Even though it kind of did.

So I texted my hairstylist (if you're not on that level with your stylist, I encourage you to get there...) and asked what he knew about extensions. He gave me some info while trying to talk me out of it, saying I should just accept what the the good Lord gave me. Yeah, no. I was too far down the mental path. I thanked him for the tips and told him I was going to find someone to "weave me pretty".

What I found instead, was hair in a bag, at Sally Beauty Supply.

Yep. I cut myself some slack, and bought myself some hair. And I kind of love it.

I went with a friend who is only slightly more hair-ignorant than I am to check them out...we must have asked 8,072 questions to the poor (beautiful) high-school girl who worked there, and eventually I left, $120 poorer, but the proud owner of a 14" bundle of dark blonde frost hair. (Real human hair, I might add!) We played beauty shop that night, and of course followed it with bathroom mirror selfie time....

There's definitely a learning curve to the whole thing, but honestly, it's not incredibly difficult. I can clip them in on my own, and it though it does take me at least 20 minutes to get them in and looking decent, I figure that's not too shabby for a novice like me. The miracle of it all is that the color is pretty much identical to mine (or at lease identical to my hair + highlights). They blend perfectly...it's sort of mind blowing.

The top looks kinda like a rat's nest here, but these pics are after wrangling two babies through a full church service, and attempting a quick family photoshoot outside...so don't judge too harshly.

It took a little bit of nerve to wear them out for the first time. They're a HUGE change for me, so I feel like a mermaid when I wear them...I'm constantly looking for people with hair that long just to prove that it's possible, and I don't automatically look like a huge fraud. But I've worn them to church, and to work, and out with friends, and everyone has said the same thing:

I had no idea your hair was so long!

Well....it's not.
And I'm totally honest whenever anyone comments on them. I figure, I don't have anything to hide...I tell them I always wanted hair like this, and it wasn't going to happen naturally, so I bought it. Simple as that. And everyone has been shocked that they're extensions. And the hilarious part is- every single girl who's seen them has been jealous! Not because I'm stunning, or skilled in the womanly art of beachy waves- just because they always wanted hair like that too or even contemplated extensions but thought it was something other girls do.

This particular day my bangs weren't cooperating, so they got clipped back. Can't win 'em all. 

So that's the story of my journey from medium-blah to occasionally-awesome...well in regards to hair, anyway. I don't wear my extensions every day, or even every week. And when I do, I don't transform into a transcendent goddess...But they are fun, and they do make me feel pretty. Turns out maybe that's allowed to be my thing too.

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P.s. Read about that one time I thought bangs were a good idea (they looked good for approximately one photo), or see my first baby's first haircut (because that's slightly related and completely adorable).

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