Going blonde

Hi, I have medium/light brown hair, and I was thinking about going to a bleached blond look. But I was also thinking of highlights. Should I just go for it, or just do the highlights or nothing at all. Any advice/help would be appreciated.

> Use some Sun-In spray (you can get at the drugstrore)> on the top of your head over the weekend. You can use> as little or as much as you want. See how you like it.> If you want more, go all the way! It could be cool.> If not you've just got the highlights.> I did that this summer with my beard, first streaking> it, then bleaching it all and it was a lot of fun and> everyone at camp thought it looked totally awesome. I> shaved it before I came home but am growing it back> now for my senior year and will definitely streak it> again. I'm also thinking I'll hi-lite my hair since> I've grown it out ( a mess of medium brown curls) but> I have to wait till I take my cornrows out.> Man you just got to experiment and see what you like.> BTW how long is your hair?

Mark,That's a good length to do it. You might want to try some Auburn streaks as well to give it a kinda natural look - just a thought.

> A streaked and bleached beard! Sounds totally radical!> I could dig it! How big was the beard man? I mean was> it like just a goatee? Just curious (and envious)how> old are you? What you gonna grow nethis time?Yeah, a lot of the guys are jealous that I can grow a full beard as a high school sophmore. But I've been sahving for a couple of years now and my folks are cool with it so . . .Actually I grew a full beard at first for the first month or 6 weeks, totaly untrimmed from my chest to my cheeks. At that point it was'nt that long, maybe an inch or inch and one half, but probably looked bigger cause I have real heavy, thick growth all over. Then I shaped it back a bit at the cheeks and above my chest. And then I just decide to streak it and a week or so later I bleached the whole thing one night with this girl. Then the last couple weeks or so I had fun trimming it back to a goatee, Fu-Manchu, with soul patch , and finally a big walrus 'stache. This time when I grow it I'll probably just do a big goatee thru Swim season and then let it grow out this spring when season's over.

I'd heard of that kind of thing in professional swimming, but never at the high school level. In fact I was reading in NEwsweek or Time a story by the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Marc Spitz in which he relayed that when he was asked to shave off the mustache he had so carefully grown earlier that year, he refused to do so. And the best part was that the following year the Russian Coaches (who had believed his story about how having a 'stache allowed him to keep the water away from his mouth and go faster) had their swimmers grow a mustache!So, I'm wondering just how commonplace is this kind of request Kurt mentions, to have a guy swimmer shave his facial and his body hair? Is it legal? I mean, if the Olympics coaches couldn't force Spitz to shave off his mustache, why would some high school coach be allowed to do so? And just how much can that reduction in body hair increase your speed?> Dude you are lucky - not only to be able to grow a> good beard but to be able to keep it during swim> season. My cousin's on the JV team at our school and> the coach had him shave not only his 'stache, but his> chest hair as well.

I'm afraid it might be more commonplace than one would want to believe, especially in high school and college swimming. My boyfriend, whose 16 and pretty wooly and burly was asked to tryout for JV, because the coach heard he was a good swimmer (he's been a beach life-guard over summer breaks). He agreed because he likes to swim, is good at it and figured it would be good and an easy thing for him to do as he starts to apply to colleges. Then after he was told he made JV, the coach told him to completely shave his torso, front and back. Now aside from the fact smooth chests are in, I really enjoy the fact that he is endowed with a hairy chest and back. And I know that, despite this current fad for clean chested guys, he feels a sense of pride and virility about his natural endowments. So far he has refused and the coach is obviously not happy because he can't afford to loose him either. I'm teeling Rob to just show up and ignore any discussion about his body hair. My feeling is that, if this guy persists Rob should bring him before the Board of Ed. Rob's a little shy about doing that but we shall see . . .> I'd heard of that kind of thing in professional> swimming, but never at the high school level. In fact> I was reading in NEwsweek or Time a story by the 1972> Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Marc Spitz in which he> relayed that when he was asked to shave off the> mustache he had so carefully grown earlier that year,> he refused to do so. And the best part was that the> following year the Russian Coaches (who had believed> his story about how having a 'stache allowed him to> keep the water away from his mouth and go faster) had> their swimmers grow a mustache!> So, I'm wondering just how commonplace is this kind of> request Kurt mentions, to have a guy swimmer shave his> facial and his body hair? Is it legal? I mean, if the> Olympics coaches couldn't force Spitz to shave off his> mustache, why would some high school coach be allowed> to do so? And just how much can that reduction in body> hair increase your speed?