As many of you know I am secretly obsessed with trying to become a blond. I eluded to the fact in this blog and I also even tried to see what I would look like by giving myself a virtual makeover:

Now, obviously the sunglasses tan line and platinum blond hair don't really work with me to portray what I would look like as a blond. But it was worth a shot. Plus I was even more inspired when a few weeks ago a blondie co-worker/friend of mine came into work and stuck her head in my office.

"Lisa.."

"Mmm?" I looked up and she was brunette.

"OH MY GOD!!! IT LOOKS SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!"

"Really? Do you like it?"

"Um YA! It makes your eyes pop. You look like a different person. I love it."

"Thanks. It was a total impulse."

"Well it looks great."

A few hours later I went into her office to gush over her hair some more.

"Wow. I am so jealous that you just went brunette. I've always wanted to try going blond."

"Really???"

"Yea well I mean not like platinum blond but a shade of blond."

"You should do it!"

I immediately looked up blonds. I came across Jennifer Aniston's hair. I loved it and knew instantly that her shade is what I needed to work towards.

 

The inspiration

 

 

The process

I've always had super dark hair. When I was fourteen I found my first gray hair and have been coloring my tresses ever since. When I became older and started going to hoity toity salons on Newbury Street my stylist always told me to go darker because I have to cover the gray. But my gray was so resistant that the color would wash out four weeks later and I'd have to go back and repeat the entire process.

When I told my mother what I wanted to do she suggested I see the guy who does her hair.

"Ah you gonna see Joe?"

"You know, I think I will mom. Can you send me his number?"

"Sure! It's about damn time you went to him!"

I have to say, The Donna's hair always does look fabulous.

I called the Joseph M. Witt Salon in Mansfield, MA and spoke with Joe (the owner in case you didn't catch that).

"Well listen," he said, "why don't you come in for a consultation this Saturday morning and I can get a feel for your hair and we can talk about what exactly it is you want."

"Sounds great."

Early Saturday morning rolled around and I walked into the cute space with my mother who immediately started greeting everyone like she was the mayor. Armed with my Jennifer Aniston photos I plopped down and we began talking.

"So tell me what you are thinking?"

I told him that I've always been dark and that I want to go lighter #1 for a change but #2 because I think it will be smarter for my grays. If I go lighter than they will blend in more to blond hair when the color wears off.

Joe explained that I'm super dark, almost black, now and that we'll have to do a process to remove my color before we start with any lightening.

"Ok. That sounds fine."

He booked me for a four hour appointment the following Saturday, March 1st and off I went.

March 1st rolled around and armed with an iced coffee and four hours worth of reading material I went in to begin my transformation.

 

Step 1: color removal and hair washing hair washing hair washing hair washing.  

Here I am before we begin. Look to the right of my part. Check out those grey roots and then my natural hair color followed by my black hair color. I look like an exotic animal! And do you see how frazzled and poofy my ends are? We devised a plan to cut off two inches from the bottom and an inch off of my top layer because long term I want to grow my hair out.

Before we even started Joe took a little lock of my hair and added color remover and heat to it.

"What I'm doing here is seeing how much color will actually lift from you hair," he explained. "That way we'll know what to expect and how light we can actually get today."

"Sounds good."

After a few mintutes he showed me the strand of hair and proclaimed, "THIS IS GREAT! I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS!"

YAAAAAAY.

Then Joe and his assistant Jen proceeded to put color remover all of my head. It smelled like a cross between perm solution and a Sharpie Marker.  While under the dryer I caught up on Oscar coverage, Sulley's amazing rescue and drank enough coffee to operate a freight liner.

"Ok! Let's get you rinsed!" Joe lead me to the sink and then proceeded to wash my hair four times. He used shampoo and conditioner by Minardi. The products smell amazing and even after Joe washed my hair four times with just shampoo I could still run my fingers through my hair! I ended up purchasing the Minardi shampoo for color treated hair and the hydrating conditioner.

After the color remover came the peroxide (he used a small amount, 10%, to just neutralize my hair), washed that out, then added a de-mineralizer (because color sticks to minerals so if you de-mineralize not only do you get rid of minerals in your hair but you also get rid of color), washed that out and then finally, after I was back to my real hair color, we were able to start the coloring!

Sidebar: that entire removal process took an hour and a half.

The color

 

Check me out with my classy foil! Mind you, before this I had only gotten highlights one other time and it was a disaster. My colorist just plopped in thin strips of color that turned orange. When I pulled my hair back into a poiny tail I looked like Tony the Tiger. Not gggggggggggggggggggggggggREAT!

 

First round of foil removed and Joe is blowdrying me so he can add the second round of highlights. I look like I'm nervous but I'm not. I just don't know how to master a hot looking self-portrait while having my hairs blown dry.

Highlights. Round 2. *DING*!

Heck yes. Rocking out those second round of highlights, trying to master the photo in the mirror but coming out looking cross-eyed.

Krystal was nice enough to stop by and take some shots of Joe Witt in action on my new hairs!!

The finished product! Me (newly lightened) and Joe!

 

Out on the street, Krystal tried to capture my hair in the natural light (with my car in the background). It's kind of hard to tell but it's definitely about three shades lighter than my black hair and it's super SUPER highlighted! I love it!

Oh and as you all know from reading this blog I am totally obsessed with the Moroccan Oil line. I acutally purchased the Hydrating Style Cream and their new Gold Shimmer Spray at the Joseph Witt Salon. I honestly don't know if I can ever go back to using any other hair styling products again. Moroccan Oil is simply too amazing!

After the cut and color were completed I gushed to Joe about how much I LOVE what he did and that I definitely want to continue to go lighter. He explained that is is possible and we can try to get there but in order to do it safely it has to be done in stages.

I totally understood. I guess I was expecting to walk in there, pour some peroxide on my hair and have that be that. But I'm happy with the approach that Joe took. Him and his team made me feel super comfortable and I have an appointment to go back in five weeks to assess the hair situation and see how much lighter I want to go.

Make sure to check back for future updates on how my caramel transformation is going. I'm so excited to see where this is headed!