My Hair Transformation

As you may already know, hair can drastically change your look. This includes the hair on your scalp, facial hair, and eyebrows. It has the power to convey emotions, and tell a someone a lot about your personality. From timid to daring, sexy to spunky. And in most cases, hair can change your look even more than makeup. Before you read any further, I know what you're thinking. What's all this transformation talk? Omg, what did you do to your hair??! No, don't expect anything "major," because if you know me, you'd know I like to keep things as natural as possible. I'm just one of those girls who unfortunately can't have super short hair (due to my super long face), and I can't do blonde without looking super tacky. Is super overused yet??? Okay, super! Phase one of this transformation was a haircut. I went to my regular stylist that I've been seeing for the past 2 years now. She's a sweet Korean lady who does a pretty good job, and I'm very picky with my hair so that says a lot! I got a much needed overall trim and shorter layers. Without further ado, let me just show you what I mean through pictures. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and trust me, you don't wanna read a thousand words from me!


As you can see,my layers were so long I could wrap it around my face and be a ninja! These over grown layers had no shape. Layers are suppose to help frame your face, bring it forward, highlight your features, give you volume, etc. So to me, this long flat hair made me look tired and older here as oppose to when I do have shorter layers. I should also add in more "fobby" lol.

NOTE: Makeup was the same in all the before and after pictures, only hair was different.



This picture was taken after I came back from the salon. I wish I had taken more so you can get a better view of the cut and overall layers. It's a bit hard to see from the blurriness and this angle, but the cut alone already seemed to have freshened up my look a bit compared to the before pictures.

I went to a totally random salon to get ombre highlights, because my regular stylist wasn't familiar with the ombre technique. Ombre is a French word for "shading," an expression for a gradient of color from light to dark. Ombre hair, which became really popular among celebrities, refers to having your hair gradually go from dark to light. What I love most about this trend is that it's LOW MAINTENANCE! This means going longer periods without touch ups, so letting your roots grow is a GOOD thing! I also love that you still have variety if you want high contrast, or go low and natural which gives your hair a sun-kissed look. I opted for low and natural of course, since my natural color is black, and black with blonde contrast is too harsh for me. I'm also used to having dark hair, because I've been dying my hair darker and darker for the past couple of years now. I've been dying my hair since the 8th grade, and back then I always had to have my hair medium to light brown, red, purple, or any other shade besides black. I think it's because dark hair always made me feel more "gothic," whereas light hair can really brighten up a face. I've also been told by several people that I look "more Asian" with dark hair, and a bit "mixed" with lighter hair. I have no idea why, because I'm still 100% Asian! Lol. Maybe it's the whole brightening up your face thing? Or looking less fobby? Haha. Anyhow, I wanted to ween myself off of hair dye, which is why I decided to gradually go darker and darker. Overtime I started loving it dark. It just looks more healthier, but again, I was told I look "more Asian" by someone recently, which translates to "more fobby" in my mind. I also wanted to brighten up my face and since I've been itching to dye my hair, I thought, why not ombre? It gives me the best of both worlds, dark and light. I can keep the dark that I've been getting used to and loving more, as well as brighten up my face with lighter ends. Wow, what happened to showing pics right? Haha. See, I can get carried away and ramble on forever :)



Here's phase 2: ombre highlights. Due to the quality of the webcam it's hard to see the actual color here. It's actually lighter in person. I almost freaked out, because it was borderline blonde, so I rushed to Sally's beauty supplies hoping to get something that'll darken it a shade or two. The sales girl pointed out that my hair is actually still in the brown zone, and matched a "light honey brown" in the store almost exactly. I decided to keep it as is and only touched up on a few strands that were blonde. Overall, I thought it was okay for my first attempt with ombre highlights. Nothing too "wow" or major, because I still wanted to keep everything more natural, but as you can see, it definitely gives me a more up to date look, versus just long, dark and blah like the before pics. As everyday passes, I'm starting to like it more and more. Somehow it doesn't seem too light as it initially did. Perhaps because I'm getting used to having lighter colored hair again. In the end, remember.. when it comes to hair, just a little change can go a long way and give you a whole new look. Now go experiment with whatever your heart desires! :)


Time to enjoy some random silly pics of me and the kiddies! <3












XOXO, Melanie and Kayvan