Roots

Dress: Anthropologie Lucerna Dress - Size S

Sweater: JCPenney - Size S

Tights: Hue - Size 2

Boots: Frye Paige Tall Riding Boots - Size 8.5

Necklace: Tree and Kimble

"So Hannah let your roots grow, let your blue veins show." - Freelance Whales

Over the last several months, roots have become the bane of my existence, and I'm not talking about the garden variety. I'm talking about my hair roots, or maybe a more appropriate term would be "new growth", that's what my hair stylist calls them anyway. Whatever the name, I hate those suckers! You see, the perfect storm has converged over the last several months causing my hate for them to really "take root" (ha ha, I crack myself up!). What are the elements of this perfect storm? First, I'm old, so I got lots of grey hairs up there. Second, I switched to a darker hair color a few months back. Third, I get highlights in addition to my color, because I've always hated how dark and artificial hair color looks without highlights.

Now, I love my new color with the highlights. I think it's perfect, but the problem is the maintenance and cost. My grey roots start showing by 4 weeks post color treatment, and they are absolutely horrible by 6 weeks. So, I've found myself at the salon way more often then I used to be, and it's not just for a touch up. I tried the touch up route the first time, and I didn't like how it looked. Let me see if I can explain this. When you go in for a color touch up and you have highlights, the stylist only colors the new growth, but he/she adds more highlights. The result is that my roots are covered up, but my overall hair color is lighter than it was before. I didn't like this, so I asked my stylist if he could do a full color and highlight each time. He said, "Sure", so that's what I've been doing for the past few months. Let me tell you, it gets expensive! Also, I can't imagine that highlighting my hair this much is good for it.

I decided enough was enough. I had my monthly hair appointment yesterday, and I asked my stylist what could be done. He said the best thing for the health of my hair was to just color it and not highlight it at all. He also said if it was too dark for me I could come back next week, and he could add just a few highlights. So, for the first time in many years, I came out of the salon sans highlights. It's pretty dark, but I like it. It definitely was a lot lighter on my pocketbook and less time in the salon. Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to go back and get highlights at all. I'll let you guys be the judge, but you're gonna have to wait a few days because I've got some outfit photos to catch up on.

Ah yes, outfit photos... I wore this one on Tuesday. My favorite thing about this outfit is the tights. I've had them for a couple of years now, but it's really hard to find things to wear with them. I love them like this, paired with my Lucerna dress, a comfy cardigan, and my Frye's. I braided my hair this day, because, well, there was nothing else to be done to it. It was a hot mess. We usually only do basic editing on the photos here on Small Town Fashionista, but I have to admit Jerry helped me out in the root department in these. It just had to be done. I was tempted to have him edit my gross veiny hands in that last photo, but that would have been going to far. We all have our standards.