Birthday Shenanigans in the Great ATX ~ Pre-Trip Prep

Friday was my birthday, so I opted to take the day off from work. This is not normally something I've normally done on my birthday, as it is always nice to make that extra money. But because my vacation was fast approaching, and I wanted to get a jump start, especially since I was scheduled to leave for Austin on the following day.   

My day started with a visit to the Meraki Salon. My hairdresser, Amanda, is a wickedly talented whiz who especially loves playing around with funky colors. She always loves it when I come. And I always love the final results.

This is what Amanda had to work with when I walked in.

The color was seriously washed out, and the grey roots were a bit long. Overall, it still wasn't a bad look. But I wanted something a lot more fun and fresh for my trip to my favorite city.

The really fun part of working with Amanda is not knowing what to expect. While I may have a general idea of what I want, I put my hair in Amanda's talented hands and let her do her thing. Neither Amanda nor I may know what the final result will be, but when Amanda gets into her creative zone...often making things up along the way...that's where the magic happens.

Of course, this approach is not for everyone. For one thing, one has to be unafraid to take risks with their hair and with how they express their sense of style. One has to be comfortable with being "different." And one has to trust their hairdresser. There has to be good communication.

I trust Amanda. She is open to my vision, and I am open to her professional skills and interpretation of my vision. There is constant consultation throughout the process.

I already showed you my "before" picture. This was Amanda's perspective of what she was going to be working with.

The first step was to apply bleach ~ 20% volume peroxide ~ to my roots. The reason for this was to lift whatever remaining pigment was left in my grey hair, and to open the cuticles to accept the vivid color. The the "vivid" was semi-permanent, it would not have much staying power on my virgin grey hair. That was definitely apparent whenever I would apply the Arctic Fox to my roots to refresh the color. The color would start fading right after the second or third wash.

Once the bleach was applied, I had to sit for a bit with a cap on my head.

 

Once the bleach did its job, my roots were incredibly white.

My roots were so white that I felt I looked like freaking Legolas from Lord of the Rings. (Not that that was a bad thing.)

Here are the views from Amanda's side of the chair.

And from my side of the chair, this is what I saw.

Let the coloring fun begin!

These were the colors to be used on my hair. The greens were not just straight out of the bottle. Amanda had to mix various greens to achieve the shades she wanted.

We first started with the lime green. It was already getting exciting!

Amanda thought it would be full to have the lime green merge into a delicious raspberry color.

 

The teal green and the purple were the next colors applied. And Amanda applied them such that the colors flowed into each other organically.

The original magenta and blue were "vivids" that were applied over berry and blue permanent hair color that was done last year. The purple "vivid" went over those previously dyed colors, thereby creating a different and novel color effect.

After five hours in the chair, here is the spectacular final result.

I feel like a peacock! Maybe this will be my year of the peacock. Or, maybe I can be ready wicked early to celebrate Mardi Gras.

That was five hours in the hairdresser's chair. I had some time to run to H.E.B. to get some quick grocery shopping done before heading back out to get my nails done at Citrus Nail Spa. Thankfully, my appointment there only took one hour. And my nail tech Linh did a fabulous job! I love how my nails look like opals!

After spending a full day of beautifying myself, I was ready to settle down with a nice margarita.

Happy birthday to me!

After that, it was early to bed for me, as I needed to get up early to bring the dogs to the bark park, before I was to bring them to Town & Country Grooming & Boarding, their home away from home from Saturday through to Wednesday.

I really felt sad leaving Alice and Domingo at the dog hotel, but I knew that they were in capable hands.

Anyhow, now that the doggos were checked in their doggo hotel, it was back home for me so that I could pack my bags and hit the road.