The Ugly and Akward Stage

This post is for Joy to laugh at and Taylor to reference. Hope this helps prove your point that yes, everyone goes through an ugly phase, but eventually it'll turn out ok.

Here we go...

I was a cute kid, doin' ok at 10 years old. I had my long blond hair, tan skin, very natural and all was well.

Soon after I turned 11, things started going downhill. For some reason, my hair got cut shorter and I discovered a curling iron and hairspray. It takes a bit of practice to get that skill down. While practicing, this is what I did to myself...

Notice the Hershey Kisses shirt. Yes, I proudly picked this out myself and yes my mother let me wear it to church.

I wish I could say this was the worst of my ugly phase, but I was seriously about to fall out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Later that same year, my mom took my sister and I to our first hair salon. Up until this point mom had always cut our hair. We did not have any money growing up, so this was a HUGE splurge. I remember being allowed to go through the hairstyle books and pick any style I wanted as long as mom said OK. I vividly remember the hairstyle I picked out. Just above shoulder length, curled under with bangs that curled and feathered back on the top. Unfortunately, the lady that cut my hair had her own idea of what hairstyle she thought I should have and within 15 minutes my life was ruined. This was the end result...

This is how I looked at church on Easter Sunday. If you look closely, you'll notice I'm wearing a shirt with bears wearing workout outfits lifting weights. Yes, I picked this out myself, and my mother let me wear it. Thanks, mom.
Student of the week: Ronald McDonald!

I remember after the lady cut my hair and was blow drying it, she asked me if I liked it. I remember telling her I thought I looked like Tina Turner. Curling it didn't help either. It just turned me into a blond Ronald McDonald. The same lady that cut my hair botched my mom's hair also. My mom had to have her friend come over to fix it. My hair was cut so short there was no way it could be fixed. I just had to wait for it to grow out. My hair was finally growing out but I had an insane case of split ends and was a constant victim to the early 90's "hairspray wings" on the sides of my head.

By high school, things were getting better. I still had an obsession with using too much hairspray. At least I was slowly headed in the right direction. This was me at 15 years old, the year I met my husband - and he STILL married me!What ugly phase would be complete without the 90's poodle perm? By the time I was 17 I was almost to the end of the ugly phase. I definitely looked much better. After high school, I straightened the perm, had a friend who was in cosmetology school (Krista) who would always fix my hair mishaps, learned how to put on my makeup better and quit buying shirts with workout bears and Hershey Kisses. I was a late bloomer - it takes me a while to figure things out sometimes. Over all, it was a loooong journey but I think I turned out pretty OK.