Photos by: The Bearded Bousman Photo Co.

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great week so far :) We got a blast of snow in Colorado this weekend, but it's melting off today and I think Spring weather will be back with us before we know it! I can't believe it's practically MARCH! Time has been going by so fast and that can only mean life is good, right? Right.

I saw #slavetomyhair the other day and I thought, that's exactly how I've felt - since. ninth. grade. This year more than ever, I've got way more important things to do with my time than mess with my hair. So, I decided to END the struggle once and for all!

My hair journey started out like so many others. I convinced my mom to let me get highlights in high school. We paid a professional to do it and I went back every 3-4 months. When I went off to college, and a whole new set of financial responsibilities came my way, paying for professionally colored hair was one of the first things to go.

I'd seen my mom use box color before, so I got the Loreal Feria Ombre kit in blonde, because Lauren Conrad was rocking the ombre and it was definitely "in." It started off great, but with each application, I accidentally inched the ombre closer and closer to my roots. Eventually, I was bleeeaaach blonde root to tip. My natural hair looked black in comparison... not good.

Let's skip forward, past year after year of box-coloring mishaps (Like accidentally coloring it silver before my first day at Disney.. yikes!). My hair wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It lacked dimension and definitely wasn't natural. I started searching for someone in Denver to give me a bayalage. That's when I found Jenna.

I found Jenna on Instagram. The pictures of her clients' hair were beautiful! Their hair was always natural looking, never tinted orange, the perfect amount of glossy, and curled to perfection! What really sold me, though, was an article I read about a girl who flew all the way from Dallas, TX to have her hair done by Jenna. I thought, if that girl was willing to fly all the way out here just to get her hair done by Jenna, then she MUST be good!

Ba·lay·age

balāˈyäZH

noun

A technique for highlighting the hair in which the dye is painted on in such a way as to create a graduated, natural-looking effect.

The Balayage process started with Jenna matching my natural root color and pulling it down through the ends of my hair. She covered my hair is saran wrap as she went to keep the colors from bleeding. She also added a slightly deeper/darker color throughout my hair, painting it about an inch or two from the root and pulling it down as well. She lastly added a little bit of blonde in the front to frame my face.

I mentioned to Jenna that I typically use a purple shampoo to stop any orange from showing up from my store-bought hair color. So when she glossed my hair, which is a sort-of staining technique done in the sink after the painting process (photo below), she kept that in mind.

Since I would be traveling to Puerto Rico the next week, i.e. I would be spending a lot of time on the beach and in the sun, Jenna made sure to gloss my hair dark enough that the sun wouldn't immediately lighten my hair and undo her work. In the picture below, you can see how she dried one side to make sure the gloss was dark enough. (And we're probably discussing Disney Princesses.)

Lastly, Jenna gave me those perfect curls and revealed my hair. I'd been turned away from the mirror for the entire blow-dry process and the anticipation was killing me!!! But I hope you can tell by all the smiles that I wasn't worried a bit. I knew Jenna knew what she was doing and that she'd give me the best hair ever!

And I was right! I was sooooo happy when Jenna finally showed off her handy work to me! My natural hair color was finally back and even though she warned me that it would lighten in the sun on my trip to the tropics, I finally didn't have to worry about a line traveling down my head as my hair grew out! It all blended so perfectly together.

I cannot thank Jenna enough for the work that she did! Not to mention that she wasn't even feeling well that night and we almost didn't get to have our appointment! Thanks a million Jenna, I love my new hair!

For those of you who want to achieve your goal hair color too, I'll leave you with a PRO-TIP straight from Jenna herself:

What's the best way to ensure your stylist knows which hair color you are looking for? "PICTURES! Pictures are the best because you say you want "blonde" or "natural" but you and your stylist could have completely different ideas on what those terms really mean."

What's your craziest hair story?! I KNOW you have one. I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Thanks for stopping by!

#hair #balayage #beauty #stylist #wine #color