The Blonde Revealed! (...sorta)

I admit I'm a little hesitant about posting pictures of myself online. I know other bloggers do so all the time, but remember, I'm new to this! Plus, no one I know in real life knows about my new online endeavor yet, and I feel like it would be strange for a friend to randomly come across it. Bloggers: has anyone you know in real life ever randomly discovered your page? Do you tell your friends/family and encourage them to read it? How do you manage the divide between the internet and real life?

Something I've been wanting for quite a while now is a new straightener. My hair is naturally blonde, and I wear it long and straight, usually bobby-pinned back in a mini pouf so my bangs don't fall in my face. (Hair in my face is one of my biggest pet peeves! I got tired of trying to style my bangs and continually getting frustrated, so after several years of dealing with that, I finally decided to just grow them out.) The straightener I'd been using is made by FHI Heat. I bought it at a discount from my stylist maybe 3 years ago, and I suppose it worked decently well. One day this past spring however, I borrowed my suitemate's CHI iron, and WOW! What a difference. My hair was so much straighter and silkier. Since then I've been doing research off and on about what kind I should buy. Last week I finally decided on the Solia Tourmaline Ceramic Ion Flat Iron with 1-1/4" plates. It has an average 4.5 star review on folica.com by over 4000(!) users, and good reviews on makeupalley.com as well. I always consult several different websites to read reviews before making a purchase, and I would always recommend checking makeupalley.com before buying cosmetics. You need to sign up to read reviews, but it's free, so no big deal. It's very worth it. Anyway, I placed the order, and three days later, a package arrived on my front porch.

ooh! shiny and new!

I was SO excited to see that it had a dial to adjust the temperature. My FHI had one setting: off/on. That drove me nuts! It never got as hot as I'd have liked, and it was super annoying that I had no means of changing that.

Looks good so far, but how will it work on my hair?

Okay, this is the "blonde revealed" part. I'm not showing my whole face just yet, but you do get to see my blonde hair! Here, just out of the shower.

"oh, hi there! just chillin' in my bathroom behind my camera."

Yep, my hair is looooong. I like it that way though. I once cut it above my shoulders because I wanted to be rebellious (plus I was donating to Locks of Love, so it wasn't all for naught) but I shudder looking back at those old photos. Of course, that was 6th grade, and "styling my hair" at that point in my life meant "blow dry and go." Not my best look, in my opinion. My natural hair is pretty straight, but this is why I use a straightener:

Hmm, kinda puffy. The humidity in my house isn't helping either.

Aaaaand ta-da! Straight as can be! I LOVED how the Solia worked on my hair. It heated up quickly, which is a plus, and it only took me about three minutes to get it looking like this from the previous picture.

This is how I typically style it. Bobby pins and a quick spritz of hairspray! That's all! Please excuse my awful split ends :( For that, I must give a big ol' thank you to my FHI straightener. Also, in addition to my bangs, I'm growing out my layers, which makes it look even worse. But I promise you it felt soft, silky, smooth, and oh so full of life!

Care to see a preview of an upcoming post?

oh. my. GOD.

Well, dang it, now you're just going to have to come back and read my blog again. You know you wanna hear alllll about these scrumptious looking confections. Holy cow, she bakes, too? Hey now, I'm not spilling all my secrets in one post! You'll have to wait and see...