I Am Emme: New Hair (and I helped!)

So a few weeks ago after we had Wes's birthday party I was scrolling through the photos and noticed my hair looking particularly horrific after a day of running around and sweating profusely. Evidenced below.

And I thought to myself; self, you've gone too far. I've been growing it out forever and ever now and I think I finally realized that it had reached the point where the length was no longer doing me any favors. I could flat iron it and load it up with as many hair products as I wanted to but my hair is just way too thick and naturally curly to maintain at that length. Sooo, cue a desperate email to my girl, Mary (hair-cutter extraordinaire) and she quickly righted the situation with a few swift snips of the scissors and a few less inches of crazy hair. Ahhhh, things were looking up.

But while I was there we also talked about me trying out her newest genius idea, an at-home hair color treatment. A few months back Mary was out of commission with an injury that left her off her feet and off of work while she took some much needed time to heal and recover. While she was out her clients who regularly have their hair dyed were getting desperate and resorted to grocery store box color. Now, I've never colored my own hair before, I've always left that up to the professionals because 1. I'd always heard how bad it was for your hair (says the lady who flat irons her hair within an inch of its life every single day, go figure.) and 2. I never trusted myself enough to do it on my own with out screwing it up.

But Mary's thought is this, if you dye your hair an all over color, why are you paying someone (her) a bunch of extra money just to apply it to your head when you could easily do it yourself? She trusts us, she really trusts us! So she started offering her clients the option to buy their color from her (the good stuff!) and do it themselves at home.

Um, hello brilliant! I've never heard of another stylist offering this, but it seems like such an obviously great idea I'm not sure HOW no one has thought of it before. All the benefits of professional grade hair color without all the extra cost and time investment. So here's how it works. You make an initial appointment with Mary and you determine what color and what amount will work for your hair. Only a 15 minute consultation and you're all set! She gives you everything you'll need to do it at home including a shower cap, gloves, little ear covers (or as Mary calls them, Barbie shower caps) and of course step by step instructions on how to do it. It's really not that hard, but if you should happen to forget for instance, how long she told you to leave it on, it's all right there for your reference. And off you go to work your own magic at home for way less money than having her do it at the salon. Also, she keeps this info in your file and from then on out she can just mail out your color to you whenever you want more. You don't even need to go in to the salon at all. Busy ladies rejoice!

Why am I telling you about this and why am I dedicating an entire blog post to it? Because I honestly think it is a really, really smart idea. And because in addition to being my friend, Mary is a local, super hardworking mama who gets what it feels like to be short on time and funds. She started this little business as an answer to a void in the marketplace she saw that needed filling and I really want to support her and other awesome, enterprising women just like her. Because that's what this world needs, a lot more women supporting women. Especially those in our own communities who are doing what it takes to keep their small businesses going all on their own. And I also think a lot of you out there might really benefit from something like this. I mean think about it. You're busy, stressed, tired, you know, the usual, but you just found a bunch of gray hairs or your roots are all grown out, or your hair just feels blah. Of course you really don't feel like finding the time to get to the salon. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just pull that bottle of personalized hair color out of your bathroom cabinet and throw it on after the kids are in bed while you watch Breaking Bad and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's? That just sounds way more appealing to me than carving a few hours out of my weekend just for a trip to the salon for color maintenance. Plus I tried it out and it's just as wonderful as I thought it would be! It's not too hard to do on your own, even for a first-timer. Although full disclosure, I did have Abby on hand while I was doing it in case things got messy or I panicked and needed assistance. (Plus somebody needed to take the pictures ;). And if you've been dying your hair from a box of color you already have the system down, this is just a way better alternative for healthier hair. And in the end it was really no big deal at all. Totally easy and completely doable. And now I have nice new hair and a pretty dark color for the impending fall season. LOVE IT.