Ombre-riffic.

I'll tell you a little known fact about me. Until a few weeks ago, I had never dyed my hair. No teenage rebellion induced streaks, no 'Asian as a blonde' attempts, no subtle highlights, na-da. It's not that I've never wanted to dye my hair, but I am very protective about my hair. Plus, with my hair being so dark, I'm always wary of how wrong it could possibly turn out. 

This year's hot hair trend has given me license to take the plunge and (somewhat) change my natural hair colour. I am, of course, referring to the Ombre hair trend - two-toned hair - ala Rachel Bilson, Alexa Chung and other cool cats. 

Images via easycurls.com and Fresh Look Hairstyles

Ombre hair was the perfect chance for me to take my hair on a "test drive" and see how a different colour would look on me:

If it looked good = smiley face!

If it looked not so good = hello scissors (or if you love your hair, hello hairdresser). 

For my Ombre-riffic hair, I followed the steps in this tutorial from A Pair & A Spare (love this blog!). 

MATERIALS: L'Oreal Perfect Blond Highlighting Kit & mascara wands

BEFORE: me and my sexy Daiso haircut apron

AFTER: Ombre!
(apologies for the awkward half face, my eyes were especially tired looking that day.)

I think I could have blended the contrasting colours better, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I do think that it looks better with wavy/curled hair, though. Here's to many nights of sleeping with a tight bun (curse you, stubbornly straight hair!)