Extreme Makeover: Me Edition

Have you ever woken up one morning thinking "I wish I was someone different"?  Not in the sense of being a completely different person, like your boss or your friend or a famous celebrity, but different in the sense of changing certain aspects of you.

Maybe change your shy personality, or that you worry too much, or you're not happy with your style, or maybe you feel like you've let yourself go and want to do something about it.

This happened to me a few weeks ago.  I woke up with a craving to make a whole new persona for myself.  Break out of my comfort zone, do something different, go a little crazy.

I'm sure that the feelings came from the few months leading up to that morning.  Family problems, work issues, me continuously feeling sorry for myself, and every time I looked in the mirror thinking, "Ugh...do I really look like that?"

A visit to P-Momma's helped put a new change in to motion.  A new wardrobe.  I needed some color in my life.  I needed to update my closet that offered me more color instead of the various shades of brown, gray, and black that hung inside.  I am a firm believer that our clothes can speak volumes about our personalities.  If I wore nothing but brown, black, and gray, it was no wonder that I always felt a little down and melancholy.  All I was missing was the black make-up and combat boots and I'd be a thirty-something Emo Chick.

So, I took to the internet and ordered myself some new kicks.  Bright colors, spring colors, colors that would reflect my personality to be fun-loving and upbeat.  But, hopefully, not turning myself in to a thirty-something going on sixty-something.

When my first order arrived in the mail, I was very happy.  Pink and yellow and green and red and purple burst out of the package and completely spruced up my closet, transforming it from a dark and dingy place to a rainbow of options.

I spent a week wearing my new clothes, and have to admit that I felt a lot better when I was wearing something bright and cheery.  But, it didn't take long to realize that I wanted...no needed more.  The clothes were a good start, but I still looked in the mirror wondering what I could do that would really compliment the new wardrobe, and the progressing new me.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with the next phase jumping in my head:  My hair.  It had, quite a while ago, gotten to the length that was easy to put up in to a pony tail.  Any time that happens, there's only one thing I ever do with my hair:  Put it up in a pony tail.  If you look at any picture of me in the last six months, you'd think they were all taken on the same day because nothing changes about the way my hair looks.  The same, dull, pony tail.  

So, I drove to my local hair salon and decided that  I was going to tell them that I needed a new me.  Something totally different.  Totally out of my comfort zone.  Something that screams "I'M A FUN PERSON".  Before I walked in, I decided to take a picture of what I looked like.  A "before pic", if you will.  And here it is...

Don't you love the boring, flat, frizzy mess that was my hair?  No wonder I wore it up all of the time.  It has this life of it's own that leaves the top half completely straight, and the bottom half curly.

When I walked in and told my hairstylist what I wanted, I'm pretty sure my she thought I was going through some kind of mid-life crisis.  There was a solid look of confusion, maybe thrown in with a little side of worry when I told her I wanted it all chopped off and made to look totally FUNKY.

She told me that there were a number of options she could do, and I then said the words that I think all hairstylists either dream of or dread:  "Have at it, and do what you think will work...keeping my original ideas in your brain as you go".

Her eyes lit up like the 4th of July.  She asked me a couple of times if I was really serious, and told me that she could really get "funky" if it's what I really wanted.  I told her to have at it, and off she went.

She cut, she colored, she cut some more, she styled, and then it was time to see the new look.  Say hello to the NEW ME!!

I ended up with a short cut in the back and a longer, face shaping cut in the front.  I got blonde highlights with a little "rocker red" thrown in there.  It is COMPLETELY different than what I've ever done, and I absolutely LOVE it.

I walked out of that hair salon feeling like a completely different person.  I felt younger, a little crazy, a lot more fun.  On the drive home, I thought about all the troubles I've been dealing with lately, and they all seemed a lot less important.  It was a start to a completely new me.  I was getting rid of the sad, boring, and bland me and inventing a happy, fun, funky me.

Last night,  I decided my nails also needed a little color and then this happened...

They're not perfect, but they'll work for now.  I need to get them done...manicure and professional polish, but my version isn't terrible.

It's amazing how some new clothes, a new hair cut, and a little color on the nails can do to someone's whole outlook.  I mean, sure, they are all "outside" changes and don't really change the person on the inside, but I don't think there's any reason why it can't help.  I was a person that wore the same dark colors every day and put my hair in the same boring pony tail.  That person whined and complained a lot, spent a lot of time feeling sorry for herself, and often felt like a rain cloud was permanently fixed over my head.

Since changing up my wardrobe, and since getting my hair cut and my nails "did", I feel upbeat, fun, and HAPPY.  It's crazy to explain, but I really do feel SOOOOO much better.  Like I really AM a different person.  The people that bothered me before yesterday just don't seem that important today.  The issues that were dwelling on my mind have started to fade.

I feel better.  So much better.  And I'm excited about it.

Right now, I need to go and get ready for work.  Start out a new week with a new me.  I'm curious to see what my kiddos think when they walk in to the classroom... I'm sure they'll be shocked.

Shocking can be OK...sometimes, it can even be GREAT!