chop chop

for weeks, the teen and i had been going back and forth about how badly we both needed to have a little something done to our hair. her mane has grown like crazy, almost reaching her bum. and she's been blessed with the kind of beautiful, luxuriously thick, naturally wavy hair that people pay big bucks for. like, she can just let it air dry and it ends up with those loose, beautiful curls that i was going for when i got that digital perm last year. but it had been months since she'd gotten it trimmed and the ends were kind of crunchy and split end-prone.

as for me, i was still fairly satisfied with my just-barely-past-shoulder length 'do. but i was getting to that bored stage where it just hung there and needed a little shaping. i toyed with chopping it off again, but when i looked at pictures from a couple of years ago i wasn't all that thrilled with how i looked back then. i even debated bangs, but remembered how much i hated growing them out and that i'd sworn after the last time that i wouldn't do that to myself again. 

then one day, i was perusing through the local offerings on my groupon app (a very dangerous pastime, let me say) and came across a deal from the same salon where i'd gotten my last cut and brazilian blowout. it was a great price for a cut, style, partial highlights and shine gloss treatment - about the same as i'd normally pay just for the cut. so i snapped up two of them and called in to schedule the appointments for both of us. 

here's the before shots of me:

she refused to let me take a front AND back picture of her, but you can see how stinking long her hair is here.

and once she was trapped in that seat, she couldn't stop me from snapping away. of course, i got the evil eye...but that's okay. 

when the foils were in place, though, she relented and took a selfie to make me happy.

my turn! i am glam, people. 

it was hard for both of us to stay awake during the rinsing portion of the process. all that lovely warm water and the mini scalp massage? i could've sat there for an hour of that. 

she got her hair wrapped up in this cute towel bun that reminded me of a flamenco dancer. 

even after snipping off two solid inches of length, she still had a crazy amount of hair. the highlights and the blowout with a round brush yielded absolutely gorgeous results:

i'd say she was satisfied with how it turned out. 

no question as to where the bean got that pose, huh?

i was also really pleased with my new look. 

i haven't had highlights in years, and i'm really happy with how subtle and natural these are. to be honest, i was leaning towards an ombré look, but i figured i'd better start off slow. maybe next time. 

and today, it'll be the bean's turn. she's been asking to get her hair cut for awhile now too, especially after seeing how cute her friend em looks with her most recent cut. 

the hub gets a haircut regularly, so it looks like all that's left is to get mollydog's fur trimmed and the whole family is sporting new hair for spring!