Holy crap I'm blond

It wasn't until I saw Ellen's pictures that I realized how blond.

That's awesome. Of course, that explains the conversation I had with my mom Tuesday night. I got home from the salon and I might have, ahem, forgot to tell her I'd be late. Normally when I tell her I'm getting my hair cut and I come home after she says my hair looks the same, which for the record, it never does. I mean, I have an entire section of my very neglected website just for my hair. (!) So, I thought I'd just let her notice, or not notice on her own.

"Hi."

"Why are you so late?"

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Did you get your hair cut?"

"Yup."

"You're. so. blond."

"Ok."

"What's your natural color?"

"Did you feed the dogs?"

"Its too blond."

"Is that a yes or a no that you fed the dogs."

"I like it darker."

"Ok, then its a no, you didn't feed the dogs."

"Of course I fed the dogs."

[Exit mom's bedroom.]

"...Are you mad at me..."

[continue walking to my bedroom]

Its no secret that my mom prefers my hair longer and brown. And that's fine. I prefer my rent free but we can't always go back to the way things were. I like to pay people to do nifty things to my hair. I can't do it. If I could, I would. And that's my primary rule when getting my hair colored: I want whatever shouldn't be coming out of my head...if it doesn't match my eyebrows, perfect! Well, and my new rule...as Regina & I work together, hang out together, and go to the same hair salon I always tell our colorist not to do whatever she has...not that I don't love her hair...I do, its just people at work think we're Frick & Frack right now...I don't need to help that along.

So yeah. I'm blond.

Speaking of beauty...

Ok, when is this trend going to hit the westside? Serioulsy, $15 one hour foot massage?!? Sign me up.

Not much to blog about but I seem to have much to blog

Made the annual pilgrimage to the land of humidity and no a/c, also known as my grandfather's house. As I've mentioned time and again, my grandfather kicks substantial amounts of boo-tay. 91, lives alone, just had his driver's license renewed (after new glasses and a full physical exam) and is on NO medication or vitamins. Yes, we're related...odd, I know.

Anyways, to be completely honest, there isn't much to blog about in Penn Hills. I spent most of my time there trying to triage my grandfather's abused 3 year old Dell full of spyware and viruses. Yes, dear readers we had McAffee software installed with supposed self-scanning and downloading. But sadly the viruses had vanquished McAffee despite my trying to run new scans and upload new software.



But on this trip, I did make two unexpected discoveries:

1. Because of the violent fist shaking and computer crashing, off I went to the evil empire, to try to resolve the bad virus/spyware situation. I chatted with a very knowledgeable and very nice kid who really couldn't have been more than 18 despite his white shirt and black tie status and ended up trotting back to grandpa's house with new software. This stuff worked and only $14.99 this week. (mental note, check at the Westwood store to pick up a copy for home....they were out on Tuesday when I stopped by...) So yeah, affordable software that actually worked.

2. So, the traffic doGs were on our side when mom was dropping me off at the PIT airport. (Anyone who has ever spent ANY time in PA knows all about PENDOT and their love of torturing roads for no apparent reason.) I had a few hours to kill and as luck would have it PIT actually has a pretty happy mall in which to kill time and excess travel funds. Since my nails were a wreck and I had oodles of time before my flight, I stopped into the spa that I always walk by when I arrive but never have time to explore.

Three fabulous things about this spa:

a. When you're waiting for your appointment you can sit in a fantastic massage chair. That was worth the over-priced manicure right there...how long was I there before my appointment? half an hour? Freakin' fantastic to not have to sit with the masses in those horrible chairs or my usual spot on the floor by the gate.

b. My manicure is still rockin', which is unheard of for real nails. Its been days and nary a chip in sight.

c. The ladies who work there are super nice, like genuinely nice.

I will tell you this...a customer was there while I was waiting for my manicure. She wanted to get her brows done. So the nice girl did them. She hardly did a thing, seriously, I watched the whole time. The lady was not happy with the "work" requested a pair of tweezers and insisted on "fixing" it herself. The poor cosmetologist was just horrified...so embarrassed. But here is what I was thinking...what exactly are you expecting from an airport spa in Pittsburgh. You need fabulous brows, hit Chroma or Anastacia, not an airport spa. Now, I know I live in la-la land and not everyone has access to Lisa or Anastacia but there are actual salons and spas in places away from L.A. and if you really care about your brows that much, uhm, then take care of them.

Someone had to do it

I just wish it wasn't me.

Background: Back in November I was going to Hawaii. As I'm talking to Elizabeth about all things necessary for the trip the unavoidable topic of bathing suits and such what not came up. And when I say such what not, I mean waxing.

I can't even type the word without flinching. I mean, you put hot wax on and then in a ripping motion, remove the wax with any hair it grabs along with it. And you do this on sensitive parts of your body.

*Shudder*

In the spirit of being perfectly honest, I believe in the must-suffer-for-beauty ideology so I enlisted. I was headed to Maui with the man and meeting Elizabeth and her friend Jo. The last thing I wanted to think about was shaving every other minute. Seriously, we had to deal with important issues like international cell phones and snorkeling and luaus. I only have so much brain space on vacation.

Its been almost a year now and I've been to a few different places. Though the idea of having hair ripped from my body still makes me twitch, I have to admit that it is so much better than shaving everyday. If you get stupid dry skin, seriously give waxing a thought. I had no idea that my dry skin was caused by shaving. (Whatever, I never said I was that bright.) I used all the moisturising stuff a chick is supposed to so I thought I just had stupid dry itchy legs. Nope, it was the shaving.

Stark

I heart Daily Candy and that's how I found the courage to even try waxing. I mean, Daily Candy has given me sample sales and fabulous (albeit super spendy) hairdressers as well as a daily dose of fashion and just random stuff. So, they said to try so try I did.

Stark is a great place to start on the great waxing adventure. They're super nice, they don't get annoyed when you ask stupid questions and their prices are totally fair. However, they have two things going against them in my book. One, they're just so gosh darn far from me. Two, although my initial experience was fantastic, the second experience was super easy, just not as super friendly. So, going back to One, it just didn't make the drive worthwhile. But, if you live nearby, you really should go there.

Magic Touch

Obviously I wanted something closer and I figured that chicks in Beverly Hills must do this. So I found Magic Touch. These guys really do fit all waxing salon stereotypes. (Its the equivalent to all nail salons being owned and run by Vietnamese families.) I didn't mind that the place was dimly lit or had horrible partitions between "rooms" and all that. I really liked the first person who helped me there but its not that sort of place. You sort of get who's available. And that leads to what I didn't like about the place. One, so I had the same person twice and a new person the third time. The different lady felt I was "wrong" in what I wanted done and proceeded to, ahem, do what she felt was correct. OK, I'm sorry but really, we're dealing with hot wax in sensitive areas and you should respect some one's boundaries. I'm having flashbacks so I'll change the subject and go to two. Two, when I tried to get the last appointment of the day, I was scoffed. Ok, if you're only open until 6pm, you should be willing to take a 5:15pm appointment.

Get Waxed

So in the August issue of Lucky Magazine they were doing a thing for different salons and spas in the L.A. area that are "green." I think that's nice but I'm a bad person and that doesn't really factor into my decision making for my personal upkeep. However, they said super nice things about the place, it was on the westside and when I did a bit of poking around on the google I found nothing but good. Although her prices are a smidge spendier than I would normally do, its totally worth it. The place is super cute and comfortable, they totally respect boundaries, and I guess, most importantly, they know what they're doing. I went for the first time last week and I'm definitely going back.

Well, since you've read this far, I'll give you my pointers on waxing.

1. Yes, it is going to hurt. But, I swear its just for a second and really isn't a big deal. And, honestly, Get Waxed hurt less than the other two places...huge plus. And, the hurt increases by the, ahem, sensitivity of the area.

2. Yes, you're going to look like an idiot that last week before going. The stupid hair has to grow out. But, its totally less obvious, annoying and abundant the more you wax. Sadly, you're still going to be made fun of that last week. Just plan pants for that last bit at the end.

3. Yes, you have to be comfortable with yourself to do this. I mean, even if you're just doing your underarms or legs, you're still going to have to lose clothing. Not to worry, the girls are super sweet and really, they've seen it. Get over yourself, they're not judging or caring. Despite the initial embarrassment you might feel (personally I don't care, but that's just me), how fabulous you'll feel knowing no hairs are poking out of that bathing suit or no icky bumps making you itch the day after you shave are more than worth it.

4. Yes, it changed my life not to have to shave everyday. I think that change in routine affected Jane as she chewed up my Intuition razor. And no, pet lovers reading at home, I didn't leave it out for her. It was in the shower where it has lived for, oh, YEARS.

5. No, I wouldn't do this at your local nail salon. Although I love the place I go to get my nails done, they added waxing YEARS after they opened so its not something they do all the time. Anytime I'm in there on a weekend, they have clients doing that sort of thing. But, personally, I want someone who's holding hot wax to really know what they're doing with it.

6. Yes, you get what you pay for. I don't know about you, but I want the best wax you can get. Years of having my lip waxed has taught me that it really makes a difference. Do you want to walk out of the salon and go buy a cupcake or do you want to walk out of a salon with everyone staring at the bright splotch on your face where hot wax was applied, removed and irritated your once soft skin?