September 4, 2007
A New Avatar – A New Hairstyle
This 
Labor Day weekend, after going to a birthday party for our son’s twin friends at Brushy Creek Water park and while our daughter was taking
a nap, I roped my husband and son into helping me create a new Avatar. The one I had been using was taken on May 21, 2003 less than a year after our son was born. Since I started blogging around May 2007, I figured I probably should get around to taking a more up-to-date picture of myself.
I was born with board straight, brown/black hair…not a curl or wave in sight. When I hit 8th grade I hated having straight hair and started perming it (a la the 80’s hairdo) until a short reprieve between 1997 and 2002. I got a few more perms until I became pregnant with our daughter in 2004.
After she was born, my hair experienced a miracle (or shall we say a hormonal shift) and I had naturally wavy hair. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. I have to say in my 37 years of living, I have not been more happy with the state of my hair than I am now. Well most days that is…like everyone else, I still have bad hair days! It also helps that I found a new hairdresser who happens to charge less than 1/2 the price of the salon I used to go to.
Erin told me I should get a professional to take my headshot. I told him I didn’t have time and we didn’t have the money to do that and insisted that he help me. Plus I knew he would end up doing a better job than most professionals I could find…and he is much cheaper. 
He worked a little of his Photoshop magic on it: played with the lighting and covered up some of the ravages of time. And voila, a new Avatar was born. The background is our off-white walls in our hallway. I am still going to leave the 2003 headshot on some of my older posts but going forward until the next major hair change, I’ll be using the new one. I also just noticed that the old one made me look a bit bright orange…
My mom and sister also had their favorites (i.e. the top two below). The bottom two our 5 year old took so of course I love those! The following have not been modified in Photoshop (i.e., no nice highlighted background plus all of the ravages of time and shiny spots are present). I thought twice about putting these up, but I believe it’s important to mix in a little reality from time to time…
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September 4th, 2007 at 7:46 pm, Neena Says:
Aruni,
I love the new avatar (although the old one was fine as well). Count yourself lucky to be one of the few women who are happy with their hair – I wish I could say the same of mine! Congrats on the update.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:24 pm, Aruni Says:
Thanks Neena! I’m happy with my hair right now…who knows what tomorrow brings.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:58 pm, Carole Says:
Aruni, I love the new avatar! I also like that you posted some “real” images; the last one is my favorite — what a great photo! : )
September 5th, 2007 at 4:14 pm, Justin Case Says:
WOW !!!! (BTW who is the guy?)Justin Case.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm, Erin Defosse Says:
Hey Mr. Justin Case: I’m “the guy”. So, you like my picture? Give me a call…
September 5th, 2007 at 8:08 pm, pearl Says:
Hi Aruni – you are looking gorgeous in all of the pictures
September 5th, 2007 at 9:22 pm, Aruni Says:
Thanks Pearl and Justin Case!