I was in Orange County and this showed up in my inbox:

This made me feel a bit rebellious so I wanted to do something different. Dying my hair was one of the things I’d wanted to try for a long time but never did.  For one thing, I’ve heard that dying my hair could potentially damage it. For another, I’ve spent my entire life learning to accept my hair for what it is so I was worried that dying my hair would only make it worse.

I decided to take a leap of faith and get my hair dyed. Overwhelmed by the number of options, I told Hung, the hairdresser, to surprise me. “I’m a nice girl desperate for social validation,” I told him, “so don’t choose any color you wouldn’t choose for your daughter.” My other condition was that the color had to be low-maintenance. I didn’t want to dye my hair every month. In hindsight, it might not have been the wisest course of action. However, the hairdresser seemed to be pleasantly surprised by my trust in him and I could tell that he treated my hair with great care.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw my new hair color for the first time. It didn’t look that different from my original hair color — Kieu, my super cute-and-kind host, barely noticed the difference when she picked me up — but Hung told me that the color would show more after a few days. Also, my butt was sore from almost 5 hours sitting.

A few days later, as I was driving along the Grand Canyon, I took a selfie and was pleased to see how the new hair color turned out. My trust in the hairdresser paid off. The sore butt was totally worth it.