Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

So I was ready for a change (other than moving to another state and possibly trying to start my own business) and I decided the best way to do that was to cut my hair.

Let me explain about me hair. I have alternated between having long, silk tresses and making terrible, terrible hair choices. I had long hair until I was 11. I cut it in a blunt cut to about mid-back (that one wasn't so bad). Two years later I cut it up to my shoulders (that was bad). Then I grew it out again. Got it layered which was okay, but had way to many layers around my moon shaped face. Grew it out again until it was lower back and evened out the layers. I had it long from my last year of high school until I got married three years later. It was long and spiral curled at my wedding, which would have looked gorgeous if it hadn't POURED. Donated it to Locks of Love shortly after marriage. Stupid hair person grabbed the whole ponytail and CHOPPED it up to my chin. 18 inches gone in two seconds-I cried. Grew it out a little bit. Then PERMED and dyed it RED. Both really bad mistakes. Grew, and grew, and grew it out again. Dyed it back to black (which looked really funny because it was kind of purplish) and cut off the by this time very fried ends. Forgot about it while I was pregnant. It grew in the meantime over the next four years to this:

My hair isn't stringy normally, it was just wet in this picture. Click on the pic to see that it's past my butt.

So I went with my sister in law to this really cute stylist, Leanne in Orem. She's Japanese so she knows how to deal with Asian hair. Asian hair is more coarse than Caucasian, the shaft is completely round (which is why Asian hair is usually stick straight) and while sometimes not thick, usually has a lot of body. The problem that I have is that stylists try to cut my hair and then just hairspray things like the bangs in place. I wanted to get a lot of layers, but not too choppy and I still wanted longer overall length. I also didn't want a lot of layers around my face, which is really popular with Asians right now, because I didn't want to look like a mushroom. I'm not that great at explaining hair stuff, so I brought some pictures and Leanne seemed to understand what I was trying to get at. I sat down, and she made the initial cut (the hair that is going to Lock of Love) and handed me a foot long ponytail. I was very proud of myself- I didn't cry this time. Leanne is still finishing the salon in her basement, so we had our haircuts in her kitchen and there wasn't a mirror to watch. So after a lot of blind faith and prayer I looked and saw this:

I have a few dark spots on my chin from some recent acne. Anyone know of any good products to take care of that?

I LOVE it. It's exactly what I wanted despite my crappy explaining skills. Here's the back:

It's a little bit shorter than what I want now, but it'll grow quickly. My head feels about 10 pounds lighter and I'm now going to save a fortune on shampoo and conditioner. Yay!