So here are my befores:
This is how I always looked... always. I pulled my hair up 92% of the time.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/DCP_0048.jpg

This one is three years ago and it is how I had my hair for about 7 years before that too.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/presenttime2.jpg

In this one I had just donated a foot of my hair. But it was the same Martia Brady look I had before... just shorter.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/newhair2jpg.jpg

This is how I had it cut early last fall. I liked it, but it was always in my face and I ended up just keeping it up all the time. It was exactly what I had done with the last two hair cuts, and I just needed something different... I mean really different.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/DCP_0018.jpg

And this my friends is now. WOW... what a change. I like it... but I haven't had it this short before ever. I cut my hair off once in highschool at my sisters behest and HATED it... so this was a big deal for me. I am still feeling a bit fragle today about it... but I think it looks ok.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/IMG_0737.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/IMG_0739.jpg
Please excuse the double chin. I was looking down at Cyan. lol...

Val

Wow! You look so different than you did when it was really long. It looks fresh and a little funky - perfect for the new you! I hope you get over feeling fragile and decide you love it.

Kimberly (of the boring all-one-length, fine, straight, thin, brunette hair that is always worn in a ponytail - all 28 inches of it)

Wow ! You look awesome mama!

wow - you're beautiful. The haircut is very very flattering!!

cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute :heart: :cuc:

I dig it. You look really good!

It's very cute!!

It looks AWESOME! Very courageous of you. Double-chin? LOL. I was studying all those photos trying to see one. Whatever. Fantastic.

You're beautiful!

Kerri

That's so flattering! It really shows off your eyes!!

SHAZAM !!!

I bet your hubby was calling you Hot Mama!!

I like it .. way way better then my last hair cut!!

You look adorable!

I think it looks absolutely positively GREAT!

Awwwwwwwww... thanks mamas. I like it too... and both my best friends told me tonight at dinner that it was the best haircut yet. I feel so loved. :smooch: :hbeat:

Warmly,
Val

I do have a completely new look too Kimberly. I spent about $200 between Goodwill, Old Navy, Rave and my hair. I felt a little strange about it, but I am loving the results SO much that I am sure in a month I will feel great about the whole thing! We have it... why not feel good and look good right? I am no longer the jeans and tee girl. I have also fallen in love with these:
http://slimages.macys.com/is/image/MCY/products/0/optimized/206650_fpx.tif?

They look SO great! They are hip flattering, I can layer 4 layers over them and they don't make my waist look thicker, and the BEST part about them is that I can fold down the top when I am warm, but when I am cold I fold it up and have a whole other layer around my mid section. I love them!

Val

Val!! I love it! I went short a couple years ago and I may never look back. I am so happy you went for it. And the new clothes, that is awesome. I am going through the same! Feels so good.


Anyway, we should chat AND get together!!!

That haircut is great on you!!!

That cut is fantastic on you! Yay! :cuc: :smooch:

You look beautiful! It's very flattering. :)

$200 for all that, mama, is NOT much. In the big scheme of things...in the "normal world." ;) If you got a haircut and some really nice clothes for $200...that's a great deal. Plus it is totally, totally worth it to spend money on yourself every once in a while. Far too often we mamas are overlooking our own needs.

Where'd ya get the pants? They look awesome. I can't wear uncomfy pants, but want something that is "nicer looking" than jeans or simple yoga pants...HAS to be hip flattering...those look like it! :)

And, wow...we are twin hair sisters, LOL. I have gone through the same exact sequence of haircuts...down to cutting it really short (mine was buzzed, actually) ONCE and hating it. But when I donated to Locks of Love a couple of years ago I got a chin-length bob - a French bob - the kind that is shorter in back. Everyone loved it, and I did too, but it got in my face all the time and I wasn't used to that. It's grown out since then and then I got the haircut you got last fall...I got it in April or May of last year and haven't had a cut since, so it's grown out to long layers. I always put it up, too. Although I would love to go short again, my ds' longest sentence right now is "Put your hair up, mama," and when I tie it in a knot/bun, he coos and snuggles me. :rolleyes: :hug: What can I do?

That is such a flattering haircut on you! Good for you for getting a new cut and getting new clothes. You look beautiful!! I also want to know where you got those black pants. They're cute!!

Very cute!

I think it looks great. And I didn't see a double chin. lol

do you have to blow dry it everyday? That's my problem. I don't like having to blow it dry with curly hair. it takes forever.

do you have to blow dry it everyday? That's my problem. I don't like having to blow it dry with curly hair. it takes forever.


Suz, it depends... see I only wash my hair once a week. So once a week it is going to take me 30-60 minutes to wash, condition, blow dry, style, and add products (I went to Aveda and got some good shampoo/conditioner and a product for wavy hair called "hang strait" to help calm the fuzzies that come with wavy hair too. $40 worth! YIKES! but with how rarely I wash my hair, that will last me 6 months or more like my crappy store bought stuff does now.)

debqcat and Mamabear/Lauren I got the bulk of my pants like this at the Rave winter sale. They were $10 a peice! (they are only $20 a peice normally.) Don't dry them... they will get pills if you do and not look so good... but you wash them with the rest of your clothes. I wear them with any thing. My fav so far is my Independent hoodie ($4 from Goodwill) with a white tank ($6 for 3 at Old Navy), and tennis shoes. I really like the look I have in the picture right now too though. I was wearing the black short pair of Goucho pants (like the ones above but shorter) with my dress boots, a black long sleeved silk shirt ($6 at Goodwill) a tight wide wasted hooded zip up sweater and a punk jacket (just punk style, not really punk. There are no large patches anywhere or anything... just that inds punk style. Also $4 at Goodwill).

One thing that has really changed my attitude towards clothes is that it is HIP to have things be too long right now. And guess what? That means they are just long enough for me! I love finding things when I go to stores in the womans section. I never did before... always bought mens smalls.... everything I bought in the ladies dept would be too short the first time I washed it. It was a waste of time and money to buy things and then have them not work after a few days. So I never did... but this new 'too long' style gives me so much more room to play with clothes. I am actually having fun again. It is so nice!

Val

Funny, I have the opposite problem, and I'm lazy about cutting & hemming, so the too-long style means the regular jeans I buy actually are in style because I am stepping on the hems in the back! :D

I'll have to see if Burlington has a Rave...never heard of it!

i think you look great too!

your hair is so pretty, i love the layers too!

You look wonderful! You look really young by the way!! If we are close in age, then I'm not growing old very gracefully compared to your pic! *lol*

When I get to the point where I look funny having really long hair (like some older women look when they hold onto their long locks)....then I'll cut mine. Or maybe when I get sick of coloring it. (I'm about 25% gray and I color my hair which is a hassle having really long hair)

If I look half as good as you do when I cut mine, I'll be really really happy. But then again, it is more than your hair...your face is very pretty too and I think you could have any style and length of hair and look nice.

Michelle

Thank you! All of you. I was really worried, but now I am loving it.

When I washed it, it got more poofy as I knew it would. I have to go pick up a straitening iron for when I want to do it strait, but I am enjoying it anyway... even a little more poofy. lol... It is SO easy... and I really have never left my hair down so much before. Just for that, I love it.

Michelle, I will be 28 on the 9th of Feb. I have my bio-dad to thank for the 'get older gracefully' genes. But from your picture you look really young too! My bio- dad just turned 60 in this picture:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Doug_Frank119.jpg
If you couldn't guess, he is the tall blonde one. lol... He perms his hair.. which I have never understood. When I was growing up he had a long braid down his back... his hair was always longer than mine until I was in middle school. He cut it and permed it that year, and I got an award for the longest hair in school... lol...

Val

Thank you! All of you. I was really worried, but now I am loving it.

When I washed it, it got more poofy as I knew it would. I have to go pick up a straitening iron for when I want to do it strait, but I am enjoying it anyway... even a little more poofy. lol... It is SO easy... and I really have never left my hair down so much before. Just for that, I love it.

Michelle, I will be 28 on the 9th of Feb. I have my bio-dad to thank for the 'get older gracefully' genes. But from your picture you look really young too! My bio- dad just turned 60 in this picture:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/bluerosemama/Doug_Frank119.jpg
If you couldn't guess, he is the tall blonde one. lol... He perms his hair.. which I have never understood. When I was growing up he had a long braid down his back... his hair was always longer than mine until I was in middle school. He cut it and permed it that year, and I got an award for the longest hair in school... lol...

Val

Val,

Your bio dad does look great for 60! Good genes to be sure!

I'll be 37 in a few months.

I dont' know any of my bio history so it is kind of a wait and see thing for my aging. I think that it really neat that you can look to the generation ahead of you. :) Your family is an attractive one!

Michelle

ssssoooooooooooooo cute val! i just did it too- see sig!

Oh, I like it! Very fresh!!

I love your newest hair cut!
it looks very cleana nd soft and easy to manage.
Yay for wash n wear hair!

Good for you! It looks great!