Earlier this month, I ventured back home to New Jersey to trade the LA palm trees for the newly changed colors of the fall foliage leaves. However, the leaves weren’t the only ones showing off their brand-new color. I took a trip to my local hair salon for a new look to match the fall season that was upon us. My hair stylist Danielle encouraged me to lighten up my dark brunette hair with one of the most popular hair coloring trends of the year-balayage. And judging by the happiness of my results, I will never going back to my dull brown hair again.
Being from New Jersey, I typically do not promote the stereotypes of us Jersey women as seen on reality shows like The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Jersey Shore, Jersey Couture, or Jerseylicious. Not all of us go for weekly spray tans, gel fills, and hair extensions. However, that does not mean that we do not like to good. In fact, I think us Jersey women have extremely high standards for beauty because we are surrounded by people who are caught up in the hustle and bustle of always looking fabulous. Thus, it takes a whole damn lot to win over my satisfaction about my look. And when it comes to changing my look, “Foregetta bout it” as the Sopranos would say.
Nevertheless, I put all my trust into my hair stylist Danielle, whom might I say has never let me down before in my four plus years of seeing her, and took a leap of faith to go for the much lighter “bronde” look as she would call it. Using the balayage technique of freehand color painting on the surface of the hair strand as opposed to saturating an entire section of hair to the very tip, she blended smooth strokes of caramel brown and blonde throughout all of my hair. None of which, might I mention, ever reached the root of my hair since this coloring technique aims to prevent strong regrowth lines that detract from the natural, multi-tonal finish. After two and a half hours of anxious waiting, she finally spun me around just as though I was Mia Thermopolis from the Princess Diaries getting the makeover of a lifetime to see the finished product. And because of my amazing stylist that is like my very own version of Princess Mia’s stylist Paulo, I left the salon that day feeling like the Princess of New Jersey.