Saturday, April 9, 2011

An Ode to Kat's Hair

So...this week I got my hair colored. I've never colored my hair before, and after this experience I never will again. I'm not going to go into it--suffice it to say, chemicals don't like me. No, I didn't have an allergic reaction, but I have a constant metallic taste that is driving me nuts! The color is not horrible or anything, just too dark, and it's making me nostalgic.

Therefore, I'm taking you on a trip back in time, through the many styles of Kat Heckenbach's hair.

Let's start in high school. Here's me with a couple of buds. I'm the one on the left, with the t-shirt I painted myself :). Ripped jeans were a must. Below the jeans, unseen in the pic, were my ever-present faded and written/drawn on black Converse hi-tops.


My head is tilted back in the above pic. Normally my bangs hung in my face the way they do in this next pic, taken at my high school graduation. Notice the red. That was my natural color! Oh, and that's my dad with me:

Next, we have me at about eighteen. The bangs are gone in this one, but then so is pretty much all of my hair. From the back I looked like a guy in the military--full-blown clipper cut. Sportin' a Ramones t-shirt. They so rock.


My hair still looked pretty much like that when I took a job at Sports Authority. I met my husband, Jeff, there, although I'd started growing it out before we started dating. By the time we got married--three years later--it looked like this:


A few years go by, and I graduate college. Here are a couple more--the first is my official graduation pic, and the second is from my grad party. Notice--still red. Still natural, too.



Sigh...if my hair still looked like that, it'd be long right now. But alas, time and age have changed it. I had kids. The new look became "Kat in a pony tail" every day, all day. Notice that even in the sun here the red has darkened to brown:


Look at that little peanut in my lap. He's five feet tall and 100 pounds now. Anyway, next is a Mother's Day picture I love. It was taken a few months after I finished chemotherapy. Obviously, chemo didn't make my hair fall out. But it did change the texture. Before long, the smooth waves started tightening. You can't tell here, unless you look closely at the curly wisps around my face.

Not long after that, I tried cutting it a bit. Better, but still too thick!


Since then, I've grown it out, cut it, grown it out, cut it...and it's just gotten darker and curlier. A couple years ago, I hit the breaking point. This is what it had started looking like (bad resolution, sorry, but you get the idea). Me and my bro:


You may be thinking, "That's not so bad." Well, it's not just poofy, it's thick--which means what it feels like is this:


Which brings us to now. About two years ago, I chopped my hair to above my shoulders, but it would never do what I wanted--still too thick and the curls aren't true curls. So about a year ago I cut my hair the way it is today:


And then the coloring from the other day...Imagine that same cut, but dark-dark-dark-dark-dark-purplish-brown-which-was-supposed-to-be-red. Sigh...

There you have it, folks. More than you ever wanted to know about Kat's hair. Hope you enjoyed the trip. I guess I'll update later when my new color has grown out and/or faded and I've decided what to do with it!

Until then....

(PS--I noticed going through here there are no pics of my mom with me...not leaving you out, Mom, I promise! I guess I just didn't have any "hair" pics with you in them.)

10 comments:

Chila Woychik said...

some lovely photos there, kat.

aah, it'll grow out. and you're pretty fine whatever the hair you've got going. :)

Dana said...

Love the long hair pics!! They are awesome. Mine changed too, that is why I stick to the shorter styles as well.

Kat Heckenbach said...

Thanks, Chila! Sweet :). And yeah, it'll fade. I'm doing all I can to speed that up, though--lots of washing, and will probably spend some time in the sun.

Dans, thanks, too. I've been looking for an excuse to scan in some old photos, and this was a fun way to share them :).

Diane M Graham said...

I have my own hair saga. :P

Kat Heckenbach said...

Yes, Diane, you most certainly do...

:D

Robynn Tolbert said...

My hair has gotten wavier with age, too. I didn't know this until I tried to cut it into a cute little pageboy like I had in 2003. It was not cute, it was not a pageboy and it would not grow back!
So, thanks to last year's six month hair-cut related massive depression, I will never, never, never, never, never, NEVER cut it short again.
Never.
I did try to dye it dark once. Didn't touch the gray and just turned the shower plug purple. Ah well.

Kat Heckenbach said...

Robynn, you make me SMILE :D.

Carol Linsky said...

Hi Kat,

I'm glad you weren't leaving me out - besides, any hair pictures you'd have with me would show all the changes my hair has gone through (short, long, short, shorter, longer, gray....)

Seeing all those pictures really took me back - I don't remember ever seeing some of them. Your long, long hair was so gorgeous. And the long bangs over your eyes - well, your Auntie Doris still refers to that period as "Cyclops":)))

I thought you hair looked really dark when you got back on Friday, but it's been getting darker for a while, so I thought you were just upset about the deep burgundy highlights:( You look beautiful no matter what color or length your hair is:) I hope the kids (one especially) didn't freak because you colored your hair. Don't worry, as fast as your hair grows, it will be back to normal in no time.

Love you!
Mom

Grace Bridges said...

Thanks for this journey back in time! I feel like I know you better now. In fact, it's a jolly good idea... Except my hair has always been boring, lol.

Kat Heckenbach said...

You know, I'm always talking about my high school days and stuff on here, so it was kinda cool to give the visual to go with it. And one thing my hair has not been is boring :P. But that's not *always* good!