Virgin

I've got ants in my pants.

It's been 9 days and 18 hours since I made the decision to try to quit smoking. According to Quit'n'Tell, an iPhone app I downloaded to track my progress, I would have smoked an extra 87 cigarettes if I didn't quit. I've also saved approximately $23. The first few days were relatively easy, but then the withdrawal symptoms started to kick in. Dull headaches, sudden hot flashes, intense cravings, extreme anxiety, etc.

Luckily, these symptoms come and go quite quickly, and all-in-all, I feel better. I can breathe, taste, and smell better. I guess if I could describe the way I feel in one word, it would be clean. My hair smells good and my skin looks healthier. I feel more feminine.

It sounds silly, but I almost feel like a new person. I've been smoking for 7 years. Since I was 16, smoking has been a great friend. We had a relationship. Cigarettes were there for me through thick and thin - when I was stressed, when I needed some time alone, when I was drinking coffee, when I was drinking wine, when I was driving, when I finished a big meal. When you've been in the habit of doing something for so long, not doing it is a foreign thing. I feel naked sometimes.

The hardest thing to deal with right now during this process is the anxiety. I can only eat so many sunflower seeds. I feel like I need to do something out of my comfort zone to take the edge off.

Here's where the ombre comes in.

I'm a hair virgin. Aside from the one time I tried to go dirty blond in 8th grade (resulted in orange hair, in case you were curious), I've never had my hair colored. Here's the look I'm going for:

I think altering my physical appearance during this time might help me come to terms with my new, smoke-free self.

It's a start, anyway.