A New Do!

In an effort to reach deep down and find my Ghanaian roots I decided that I needed to try and become more physically like them. Since changing the color of my skin isn’t really an option without ridiculous amounts of Michael Jackson surgeries, I decided that my hair would have to do. I have also had this obsession or strange desire to dye my hair really dark or red, just for kicks and giggles to see how my natural toe head would take it. But, as you may have guessed I’m much too chicken to mess with my hair in such a permanent manner – I really do enjoy my blonde hair and I always worried that if I dyed my hair I would never be able to get back to my natural color. But here in Ghana I realized that I finally have my chance! I could braid my hair with extensions of a darker color and get a less-permanent result for my lifelong dream of seeing what I’d look like with darker hair.

So on Tuesday, Emily and I set off to the salon to get my new do (after consulting with Gloria and making sure she had called the salon and told them what I wanted, just to make sure our communication didn’t get too mixed up).

We got to the salon a little before 2:30 – I sat down, picked out a nice color of brown with red in it (which I thought wouldn’t be too bad) and after trying to explain that I just want braids – no cornrows – Emily made sure to take "before" picture

Then they set to work. I was suddenly EXTREMEMLY NERVOUS!!! This was my precious hair… what was I doing!?

Emily thought this was quite amusing because every picture she took of my face it was quite obvious that I was freaking out. But they'd started... nothing I could do now!

At about this point (like 2 hours later) I was convinced they should be almost done... not a chance! This was only about half way.


After about 4 hours of pulling and tugging they were finally done with the braids - but when I thought I should be standing up I suddenly feel this warmth on the back of my neck... FIRE!!! They were burning my hair!!! I thought that they only burned the ends of the hair... not my whole head. I was suddenly worried about the damage it was doing to my real hair in the midst of the extensions. Then I remembered how much wax they put in it, so I'm hoping that's all that really got burned... I guess we'll see when it all comes out in a couple weeks :)

After burning the hair they put the ends in really hot water. Then the lady began pulling one piece after another straight back into a ponytail. At first they had to tie with a string before they could get a rubber band around it, which I thought was funny - but then they let me get up.
It was the final moment... the true test... They brought me a mirror.
AHHH!!! First - my hair is WAY darker than I intended. Second - all I could see were the bald spots covering my head between the extensions. Because my hair is so blonde and my head so pale they just blend into each other and it was all I could do to not think they had completely made me lose all my hair.
I'm better with it now. Turns out it was mostly because of the way they had pulled my hair back. If I pull it back with a side part it's actually quite fun, and I'm getting used to the darkness of it. Spencer thinks it's fun and thinks I look like a punk rocker - I always thought I was destined to be one of those! :)

This is the end result with all the workers at the salon. A good majority of them spent an hour of more on my hair. What good sports!

Here are some close ups of my new do!