Chopped - The Whole Story

I realized I never really explained my inspiration for the drastic haircut that I got recently.

First off, here's a pic of me taken moments before I got 8 inches chopped off.

Before: Long and shapeless.

I've never really been one to have issues with split ends or dry and damaged hair, but moving to Arizona apparently changed that. I used to go 6+ months between haircuts and have no issues. Here I went about 3 months between hair trims and my hair was in AWFUL shape!

Plus, I was just tired of having long hair and being too lazy to ever actually blow dry it. It was pretty much always in a ponytail.

I asked my husband if he thought I should chop it all off and, surprisingly, he said yes. Turns out, I guess he kind of likes me with short hair. Who knew?!

I've never been one to shy away from a drastic change of hairstyle. I just get bored easily with my hairstyles so I have always been one of those people who lets my hair grow out long, and then chops it all off the minute it gets to my desired length. And the cycle repeats.

So anyway, once I decided to go short I started searching online for images of short hairstyles that I liked as inspiration. I quickly found this one of Nicole Richie and decided that this was the look I wanted:

Nicole Richie's Short Bob (though some people may call this medium-length)

I printed out my inspiration photo and took it into my hairstylist in Tucson. I had never been to this stylist before so I was really hoping I wasn't making a huge mistake! (FYI I went to Panache in Tucson and my hairstylist was Emma)

About an hour later I came out looking like this:
And I was thrilled with the results!

Yes, it's slightly different than the inspiration but those were all adjustments that Emma discussed with me to make the look better fit my needs.

Here's another look of the haircut from the day it was done:

The real test though was whether I would be able to easily style it myself. I'm a low-maintenance kind of hair girl...I actually hate doing my hair so it has to be somewhat easy to do or else I'm doomed.

Here is a pic taken a few days later when I styled it myself:

Please ignore the Hubs' goofy face!

I think it looks pretty good, all things considered!

To style it this way I applied a light styling mousse and then blow dried it with a medium-size round brush. After blow drying I used my Chi straightener to just quickly smooth out the hair, not taking too much time on this step. Finally, I finished off with a light coat of flexible-hold hairspray.

I've also since figured out that it doesn't look terrible if I just wash it, scrunch it with some mousse or gel and let it air dry. It doesn't look as good as when I blow dry it, but it works in a pinch!

(FYI - I have very straight, fine and somewhat limp hair, but I have a lot of it.)

My only complaint with this hairstyle is that my hair tends to do it's own thing on the ends no matter how much styling I do. No matter how hard I try to get it to curl under, it's a futile effort on one side and in the back. I think it does this because the hair length skims my shoulders and therefore gets naturally flipped out instead of in. Oh well! I'm embracing it!

Phew...I never thought this would end up being such a wordy post! I guess I have a lot to say about my hair. :)

Question: Do you take in inspiration photos when you get your hair cut? I ALWAYS do because I find I usually have a hard time verbalizing what I want.