Transforming Mr. Brown Part II; The Big Cut

Are you ready for the really fun part? Thanks to all your generous donations, we raised more than $2,000 for the Tiki Techs and Mr. Brown agreed to cut his ponytail and donate it to charity.
I had planned to take Justin for a consultation before the fact, but in the end his busy schedule meant we had to just dive in.

I took him to see Carla at Paradise Salon, who has given me my fair share of dramatic haircuts and has done big cuts for charity more than once. It's always a pleasure to sit down in her chair. After combing his crazy mane, she carefully braided it, securing it with rubber bands at both ends. For the donated hair to be usable it has to stay all together during shipping.

Then it was as simple as SNIP! Justin's face remained impassive, but I felt a big lump in my throat. This was truly a transformation.

This braid will be part of a beautiful wig for a little kid fighting the battle of their life. It takes 6-10 ponytails to make one wig.

This was the photo I brought Carla for inspiration for Justin's hair. In the end, his hair texture is much less curly when short, so she went ahead and used her best judgement in creating a style for him. She went pretty short, pointing out that it might be a while before he makes it back to the salon so we should err on the side of clean and crisp.

She used clippers to tame his beard a bit as well, but ultimately left it up to him to decide how to change it.

His first peak in the mirror. I think the ladies in the salon were the ones most excited. His expression remained pretty neutral, so I'm dying to know how he really felt.

Next we went back to his house where he decided he wanted to trim the beard down to a goatee and take a long shower to get all the hair off his neck.

I can't wait to share the final reveal with you! What do you think? How does he look so far?

Last Chance to Transform Justin Brown!

Just saw this before and after of football player A.J. Hawk who just donated his hair for kids fighting cancer and had to share. We are only $300 away from our goal to do the exact same thing with Mr. Brown's ponytail. Our deadline is Tuesday, when he will be taking his Robotics team to New York City to compete at Nationals! Please donate if you can. I've been so touched by the support we've gotten from so many of you. Mahalos! Updates to come!

P.S) You can follow along on Facebook here as well!

Doing it All.

Feeling a bit like a contortionist these past few weeks with house guests (first Mum and now some dear old friends and their sweet one year old bebe!), a Superbowl party, a deadline for an online magazine, work and pulling together details for Transforming Justin Brown. (Please donate whatever you can!) Luckily it's all lots of fun- if only I had a pair of golden boots and a spangled bikini to do it all in, like this lady!

Are you feeling extra busy lately? How do you juggle when things are moving fast? I'm reminding myself to stay grounded and live in the present moment. It seems to be opening up space and time I hadn't planned for.