So as a “Flashback Friday”, here’s a post I’ve been compiling pictures for…for at least a few months now. This is the most you’ll ever see my face in a post, that’s for sure.
I’ve been thinking lately as to how much my style has changed and how it matched my personality and the feelings I felt at the time. To me, I can see the change over the years but I also feel as if I’ve been pretty consistent. I’ve been wearing the same clothes for a long time since I’ve managed to fit into everything as I basically stopped growing at age 12, aaaand I’m also a hoarder. I never really followed trends, but I was inspired by them over the years encouraging me to make it my own, as I live the DIY lifestyle.
The one thing that changed dramatically was my hair. I can look at pictures and know what year it was. Is that excessive?
Can I show you?
★ 2007 // It was my junior and senior year of high school. Prime Myspace time. Where the selfie originated and taking photos for your profile was “important”. I went out with friends a lot and took LOADS of pictures; I was the photographer in my group. At this time I was really inspired by Ghost World and rocked the t-shirts, skirts and boot combo. I went through a phase where I wore cat ears everywhere I went, and I was all about the natural-ish red hair. This was also the last year I heavily wore eye makeup.
★ 2008 // I finished up high school and entered my first year of college. I carried over the red hair and tried to simplify my look by wearing more skinny jeans and t-shirts. I think there was a neon phase that was coming about, or finishing up. I don’t quite remember, but I tested it in my wardrobe. At least more colors as opposed to a whole lot of black, which is silly because this was the first year I ever dyed my hair black. It’s not shown in these pictures, but it was a thing. And I loved it.
★ 2009 // My second year of college I lived in the dorms and explored NYC quite a bit. I tried to create some kind of “cleaner” look. But I failed at it because I really experimented a lot with shorts on top of tights/leggings. I asked myself what I was thinking, and…yolo was the answer. I also had an “oops” hair moment as I used dye that only colored my roots and couldn’t penetrate through the black, so I had hot roots for a whole lot of months. I also rocked the asymmetrical hair cut – one side was shorter and spiraled to the other side being longer. Kinda 80s-ish? I think 2009 was really the year of “What was I thinking??“.
★ 2010 // I switched majors at this point. I was officially an art student, and I guess I really looked the part. Put my hair through hella damage by bleaching out all the black and dyeing it red. I loved it but got super frustrated at how much people stared at me on the streets. It wasn’t like it is today with people dyeing their hair bright colors left and right. I got stared at and got so hot and bothered that I went and dyed it brown. It was my first time dyeing my hair a natural color since I had my natural hair color 9 years prior. I also dressed a little more lazy. I was all about the sweatshirts and hoodies.
★ 2011 // This was a dramatic hair year. I started brown, faded to a light brown so I dip dyed red since I had a lot of dye leftover and I was bored of the brown, then cut my hair, dyed it red, let it fade and then did half orange half brown. My style was a little more diluted. A lot of black and grey with pops of color. I also developed a love of oxfords during the summer.
★ 2012 // Another bad hair year. I decided to cut my hair shorter than my chin with baby bangs, and I ended up looking like a little boy. Took me the entire year to grow my hair out which I concluded I kinda ended up looking like Joan Jett. For sure doesn’t bother me. I still continued that black and grey look with pops of color. I was all about that subtle color pop.
★ 2013 // I learned my lesson when I cut my hair short. This year was the longest my hair had grown since elementary school. I kept my hair pretty much black but experimented with bleaching sections, be it underneath my hair or half of my bangs. I threw in some green dye here and there. At this point, I was just mastering dark colored outfits. I also bought my first pair of cat eye glasses which changed my life.
★ 2014 // This was the year I tried the ombre look. I’m not a pro at bleaching so it was a little rough, but I rocked it. I was consistent with the baby bangs, and eventually grew my hair out towards the end of the year. This was a big year for me as I graduated college, got my first full time adult job, and moved across country. This was the year I learned a lot about life and learned how things can be disappointing, but in the end turns out to be a blessing in disguise.
I began this blog a couple of months after 2015 began, and the rest is history. I’ve shared my wardrobe transformation and style inspirations, and it’s interesting putting pictures together seeing what I looked like then and how I changed over the years.
The cool thing about documenting the things you create is going back and reviewing what you made and when you made it. It’s like a time capsule, and it’s fun going back and reviewing all those bit and pieces of what made me who I am now. I’m truly thankful I began blogging all those years ago to able to capture that. It’s always a treat to see how I evolved, hopefully for the better.
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