New Hair Style or Color

I decided to go all-in on this goal - a new style AND color! Here's the skinny. I've worn my hair long for several years now, and usually I really like having it long enough to pull back or braid or curl or whatever I feel like, but this has changed in the last year or so since my son was born. I had always heard that pregnancy changes your hair, but I didn't really notice a difference until after I wasn't pregnant anymore. My pregnancy hair and post pregnancy hair were visibly different, the pregnancy hair being darker, thicker, and courser. I first noticed that definite line about 2 months after baby was born.

Sad moment with sick baby, but this shows just how long my hair got!

So now, here we are a year and a half later, and that line of distinction was now about to my shoulders, so I decided to just cut it off right there! So that's what I did! Or ... that's what I tried to do.
On President's Day, I went to a local discount hair salon and had a lady there cut my hair. I explained what I wanted and, when she finished, I thought it looked okay so I went home. But then once I got home and started to actually live with the hair, I realized that she hadn't taken off quite enough. Now not only was my hair obviously darker just at the ends, but I also couldn't bush through my hair without the new ends getting snagged together! So obnoxious and, I might add, more than a little distressing!
So I made an appointment with my cousin's wife, who happens to be a hairdresser, and asked if she would give me another hair cut and add in a lightening session as well. She agreed but due to her schedule and irregularity being in the salon, we had to schedule 2 weeks out.
La-de-da life goes on until the appointment, and I was getting used to the 6-less inches of hair that were already gone from my first haircut.
Appointment #2 - I got to the salon at 3:00 on Saturday March 7th, and the highlighting began.

The fabulousness of this look cannot be understated. 

Don't worry, the highlighting and haircut only took FIVE HOURS! I have a LOT of hair .... But the results turned out alright!

Work selfie!

And now here's the current haircut. My current complaint is that I have so much hair that it often goes "mushroom" on me. So I'm going back to my hairdresser tomorrow to get more layers. Hopefully at that point, I'll love it.

For now, I love the lightness