Someday My Natural Hair Will Come

(shirt and skirt: Forever 21/ shoes: GoJane.com/ headband: AliExpress.com/ earrings: Femme de Bloom on Etsy.com)

As the photo evidence demonstrates, the purple hair is now gone and I am once again a brunette. The change took the whole day yesterday, but it felt very natural when the deed was finally done and I looked in the mirror.

It was just time for me to really start transitioning back to my natural hair. I knew I was not going to have "crazy" colored hair forever because of jobs and responsibilities, and I originally had intended to keep the purple for just my fall semester. However, when I dyed it I liked it so much that I wanted to keep it longer. The purple just felt so natural to me. I have always fancied my soul to be the color purple, so it just felt really fitting.

Towards the end of last semester, however, I was really getting tired of the constant upkeep and having to bleach my roots. I kept lengthening the weeks I waited before I touched up my hair, until all of a sudden it had been four months and my roots were very visible and I still couldn't bring myself to bleach my roots.

At that point I had gotten an internship for the summer and finally convinced my indecisive self that I was going to dye my hair back. I don't really know what my internship's policy is on dyed hair, and I have a feeling the particular internship would have let me keep the purple. I know the reality, however, is that I am going to be making lots of important connections this summer, and I will make a better impression on most people with a natural hair color. And honestly, when it comes own to it, I just really miss my natural hair color.

I love my natural hair, which has always been one of my favorite personal features. I have always loved the way my dark, rich, deep brown hair contrasts against my quite pale skin and lights up into so many different shades of brown and red in the sunlight. I love the feel of combing my fingers through my very straight, silky hair, and how it always seems not to have the perfect amount of volume and bounce to it.

It will probably be at least a year and a half before my whole head can turn into different shades of browns and reds when the sun shines and healthy enough to be silky smooth through my fingers. For now, I am stuck with just plain black and hair that is not very happy about all the bleach (I had to bleach it one last time for the black dye to hold sadly) and which is far from being silky smooth. What I already have back though is the high contrast between my dark hair and my light skin and the high impact of my favorite red lipstick.

Although I did love my purple hair, my natural hair is my favorite because I feel like it is just the perfect shade made just for me. We should all appreciate our natural beauty and all the different hair and skin and eye colors that we are born with, because they are all our own.

 That being said, it is fine changing the way you look for whatever reason you want. Doing so might even make you appreciate your natural looks even more, like it did for me. Before doing so, however, there is definitely a lot you need to consider before. Below are my own personal list of pros and cons for purple hair after having done it, although everyone's considerations and concerns will probably be different.

Pros:

• I got to try something dramatically different that I thought would look good but took a risk on
• I learned how dying hair works (more or less)
• I got to have one of my favorite colors on my head everyday, no matter what
• I expressed a part of personality through my hair
• I got out of my comfort zone majorly
• I got to see what I would look like as a blond along the way (and didn't like it)
• It was a very dramatic change, and I love change
• I got to experiment with what would and wouldn't look good on me in a way that I haven't done in a while
• I had interesting experiences with some people that approached me because of my hair and make for good stories
• I was easily recognizable to my friends at a distance
• It made me feel very brave for taking the risk
• I will not have any regrets about not trying out a non-traditional hair color while I still could
• I would get compliments on my hair almost daily which sometimes made me feel better on bad days
• It was easier to imagine I was a magical fairy unicorn or flower when I looked in the mirror
• It was just fun to have purple hair

Cons:

• It was pretty expensive. I probably spent close to $200 total on hair supplies, and I did it all myself and avoided touching it up as often as I should
• I never was unhappy with my natural hair, and I constantly missed it and considered dying it back at least once a week
• It is a lot of work and time (and I am VERY lazy)
• My hair is super damaged and I have to worry about breakage. I noticed when my roots grew out quite bit that there were some chunks of hair that broke off where it was purple (although to be fair I always left bleach in almost two times longer than I was supposed to)
• Some colors just didn't look as good as they used to on me. Pastels looked wierd when my hair was super purple, and red (AKA my favorite color to dress in) looked strange when my hair was faded. Green looked wierd always, and if my outfit was too dramatic or I had a very loud,colorful piece on, I just looked like a clown
• It seemed that my hair made me more approachable to certain people who would use it as an excuse to talk to me when I didn't want to be talked to
• I got hit on more often by guys that were boring, dull, unoriginal, and annoying
• A lot of people will swear they have met me before just because other said person they actually met or saw probably also have purple hair
• I had to have the same discussion over and again about bleach and hair dye
• People would ask me why I would dye my hair purple
• People would compliment me on my hair to the point that it just became so unoriginal
• Literally almost everyone I met had to say something about my hair
• I was easily recognizable at a distance and it was harder to avoid certain people
• People regularly assumed I was a hairdresser. Some would randomly ask me (a stranger) to dye their hair
• My hair never looked completely natural, and as a result, I couldn't really pull off the natural look
• People (usually strangers) would sometimes give me nicknames. Some of them were cool, but others were trying to be clever and weren't. An example: "PHG," which is apparently meant to stand for Purple Haired Girl
• People would sometimes ask me to take pictures with them and it was really weird and half the time I was running late to somewhere or other (because I always am) and I would try and get away without seeming rude
• It was a pain dying it back and it pained me to have to bleach my hair again

I am probably missing some pros and cons, but that's probably it. Also, I know it seems like a lot of cons, but if you're thinking about dying my hair, don't let me discourage you, if that's what you want to do. The cons list is filled with a lot of things that are just irritating, but it was a great experience that I am loved and I am glad I did.

Now for the story of my last minute, casual Disneybound from today:

This morning was going to be the first day showing off my new hair and I really wanted to wear something that really played up its darkness, so I put on this bright blue shirt and of course my red lipstick. I then put on a black and white striped skirt and looked in the mirror and felt like it wasn't enough, so I put on my red bow headband. It was at that point I realized how I was half-way through creating a Snow White Disneybound, and how dressing up like the only Disney princess I look like and loved channeling when I was a brunette would be the perfect way to celebrate my renewed brunette status. I am also headed to Disney tomorrow, so I felt like it was a great way to celebrate that, too. So I changed into my mustard skirt, put on my apple earrings, my blue shoes, and then rushed out to catch the bus so I wouldn't be late for class.

Someday my natural hair will come, and I am excited and waiting to have it back.

New Orleans 2015

This past weekend my boyfriend and I went to New Orleans to celebrate his 21st birthday and explore. This trip was really special, not only because neither of us had been to the city before but also because it was our first trip alone together. We both had a lot of fun and got to see the city's different neighborhoods and people, both good and bad. As usual, I took a LOT of photos, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites here. I hope you enjoy them!

Day One:

The French Quarter

We spent our first day exploring the French Quarter, which has a lot to do and see in crammed into one district. We determined that we hated Bourbon Street pretty quickly but that Royal Street and the rest of the French Quarter was really beautiful. Among the things we saw Friday were a free museum of the late Germaine Wells' Mardi Gras costumes, various commercialized voodoo shops, the St. Louis Cathedral, street performers, lots of art galleries, and the Mississipi River. Our two favorite galleries were the Antieau Gallery for its whimsically beautiful artwork and the George Rodrigue Studios because of the funny little blue dog that was the subject of most of the works. The blue dog became a running joke throughout the trip, and we saw it almost everywhere we went. We also found the most beautiful vintage shop I have ever seen with the most insanely high quality vintage dresses that I almost cried over, both because they were so beautiful and so out of my price range. Of course being the world's biggest sweet tooth, I absolutely had to try Cafe du Monde's famous beignets, and I was not disappointed. 

Day Two:

The Warehouse District

Our second day was gloomy and rainy, so it was a good thing that we had planned being indoors at the National World War II Museum anyways. The museum was incredibly well designed with very immersive exhibits. I am actually working on putting together an exhibit in one of my classes on the Occupation of Okinawa right after WWII that goes up next week, so it was really cool seeing how the museum had used a lot of the ideas we have for our design so successfully. It made me feel even more excited and proud of my class's own exhibit, which opens next week in Tallahassee (everyone in town should check out the information for it here). My only complaint about the museum was how crowded it was and how we were often  forced to go at the crowd's pace, fighting to see objects and read labels.

We were starving after leaving the museum, and walked through the pouring rain to a local restaurant called Corporation Bar and Grill that I cannot recommend enough. We both tried our first Po Boys there and loved them. We had come for the food, but we stayed for the friendly environment and shelter from the rain. The staff was super nice and they brought us two rounds of food on the house: Coconut Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli. We were both bursting at the seams from lunch but we tried to eat as much of the delicious food as we could. Eventually we left with lots of leftovers because we felt bad about being given so much free food on such full stomachs but couldn't bare to turn down such delicious food either.

Braving the heavy rain and winds, we headed to Julia Street because they were having an art walk that night and I wanted to see all the galleries. We did get to see some great art, but the environment itself was not something I had ever experienced before, and was a bit uncomfortable. The people at the art walk were almost all very clearly upper class, which didn't bother me or make me feel uncomfortable at first. Then one guy said he liked my style and asked where we were from. When Elijah asked why he knew we weren't from there, he said that it was obviously because of the way we were dressed, which annoyed me because his previous compliment on my style seemed to turn into a backhanded compliment. His partner then said that one of the artists was giving a talk and that we "should listen and learn something." Elijah and I were both annoyed at how patronizing they and a lot of other gallery-goers suddenly seemed. It bothered us even more how a lot of people in the gallery pretended to listen to the artist whose work they were considering buying for thousands of dollars while actually drinking their wine and whispering amongst themselves or checking their phones, including the guy who had told us we "should listen and learn something." Going to the other galleries afterwards, we noticed more and more how a lot of the people seemed very classist with airs of superiority. Of course, this was not the case with everyone, and we did have some nice exchanges with some of the gallery-goers without being patronized or looked down upon.

The rain and the snooty, classist people combined made us call it a night pretty early Saturday, but don't let my little rant deceive you. We still really enjoyed our day exploring the Warehouse District.

Day Three:

 City Park

    

Our third day was chilly and still gloomy, but that didn't detract from the beauty of City Park, where we headed to explore. Since we got there earlier than the New Orleans Museum of Arts opens on Sunday, we went to their sculpture garden right next door first and saw some really wonderful and thought provoking sculptures, as well as the funny blue dog.  Afterwards we went to the museum, where my favorite parts turned out to be some of their modern American art and the amazing exhibit Traditions Transfigured: The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi. In the Noh mask exhibit, it was really nice to see how the artist converted some women of the western art canon into Noh masks, as well as traditional characters from Japanese plays recreated in Noh masks besides the Japanese prints where the artist drew the forms from. The artist had also converted Angelina Jolie into a Noh mask in her character as Maleficent.

After the museum, we headed to lunch at a Chinese place, which happened to be next to a really cool ice cream place that I fell in love with. They had some really unique flavors, but I stuck with strawberry cheesecake and praline. It was so good that even Elijah, who doesn't usually care for sweets after a full meal, really enjoyed it.

After lunch we headed back to the park and went to the small amusement park they have in order to get to Storyland, a little park built out of scultptures from different fairytales. Before finding it we came across the New Orleans Botanical Gardens, which was small but lovely. Finally we found the entrance to Storyland, which was full of kids. That didn't stop me from taking pictures with some of my favorite fairytales and nursery rhyme characters, or from sliding down the dragon slide two times. It was a really cute park, but I do wish they hadn't ripped off Disney in a few places and tried to portray their own idea of the original fairytales.

Day Four:

 French Quarter (again) and the Garden District

 On our last day, we had a bit of a lazy morning enjoying the Airbnb that we had stayed at over the weekend. It was a warehouse that our host had converted into a hostel and music venue by using recycled and repurposed materials. There is so many details and quirky things that made it such a nice place to stay, along with the the interesting and laid back people that live and float through there. We ate all our leftovers on the roof with a view and I took some pictures to remember it by before we left.  The hostel was called Plan C Art Hostel & Music Venue, and I really recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a small wallet that wants to travel to New Orleans.

We had a Groupon for lunch at New Orleans Creole Cookery, so we went back to the French Quarter and explored more of Royal Street before. We found lots of really great antique shops, including one with lots of nineteenth century guns and swords. One of the antique shops sold truffles that looked too good for me to resist. Both flavors that I bought were really tasty, but predictably I loved the white chocolate strawberry cheesecake truffle the best. Finally it was time for lunch, and we chose to sit in their courtyard by the fountain. Elijah finally got to try raw oysters that he had wanted to have the whole trip, and we shared a dish of Pasta Orleans as the sky finally went from grey to blue again overhead.

After lunch we headed to the Garden District to try and look at all the really nice houses, but ended up looking through more antique shops and interesting little stores instead. I had macaroons at Sucre, a famous New Orleans ice cream shop, and then we headed uptown so that I could eat ice cream at Creole Creamery, another famous New Orleans ice cream shop. I had one scoop of Apple Cinnamon and one scoop of amazing Lavender Honey, but one of the things I was most excited about was the waffle cone, that was baked into itself at the bottom so that ice cream didn't drip out.

To finish off the night, we headed back to the French Quarter to enjoy the riverside and see the St. Louis Cathedral one more time before catching our midnight bus back to Tallahassee.

Day Four and a Half:

 Homeward Bound

After a great weekend, we headed back to Tallahassee on an overnight Megabus. Since the bus was really empty, we got to sit in the front row of the second floor, and in the morning we got a beautiful view of the road as we came into Tallahassee.

 I am really glad we went on our pretty last minute trip, and we both enjoyed everything about it. I can't wait for more adventures together with Elijah!

Outfits:

Day One:

Dress: Forever 21/  jacket, purse, and ballet flats: Target/  boots: JCPenney (four years old and they finally broke)/ necklace: Miami Twice/ earrings: Sale Rack in Miami

Day Two and Four:

Dress: Forever 21/ shirt: vintage from Miami Twice/ scarf: vintage from Ebay/ earrings: Claire's/ jacket, purse, ballet flats, and necklace: see above

Day Three

Shirt: thrifted from my mom's closet/ shorts: Forever 21/

 everything else: see above