Stay the Course or Take a HUGE Risk?

The title of this post makes it sound like I'm about to expound on a serious life issue in need of direction and wisdom. Like moving to a new country. Or taking on a new career. Or .....

False. This post is completely the opposite and is all about what color I should dye my hair, if at all. It should really be titled "The Story of My Hair" but I didn't know if anyone would want to read that. So instead I tricked you. Here's the deal: My friend Ellie gave me a little card about a year ago for $20 off any service at this nice salon she goes to. Being that we're poor and Tim's aunt cuts my hair for free, I held off using it because nothing's cheaper than a free hair cut.

But lately my hair has been wanting. I used to be able to go to bed with it wet and in the morning I'd wake up with perfect, beautiful waves (I know, so amazing). Here's an example from when Tim and I first started dating when my hair was in it's prime - great color, great shape, great volume:

It stayed like this until I decided to grow my bangs out for our wedding so that it would be easier to style. I'm pretty sure that's where things started to go downhill. Of course, day of it looked gorg. But as soon as the wedding was over, my hair totally went on strike (see below):

So what do you do when your hair goes on strike? 

And on your honeymoon, nonetheless? 

Wear lots of hats.

But that got old pretty fast. Not to mention "hat hair." So I did something drastic - I cut my hair and brought back the bangs. But just like when you microwave a day old piece of pizza, it just didn't turn out the same. Don't let this "good hair" image mislead you - I'd cut my bangs crooked and way too short. As you can see, Tim also got a hair cut (understatement).

The photo above marks the beginning of the end of a good relationship with my hair. About five months later, I got pregnant with Jack and decided to stop coloring it (for "safety" reasons). This is what it looked like for the majority of my pregnancy (photo on left) and then about four months after giving birth (photo on the right). As you can see, this is my natural hair color:

Now most people see my natural color and they implore me not to change it because "People pay good money to try and dye their hair your color." Well, I don't know what to say except it doesn't give me any thrills. It always looks kind of blah to me. Oh, and don't forget I've now had two babies - and those pregnancy hormones are not kind to a woman's hair. They take the life out of it.

So here we are, present day, and I finally decide to use that $20 coupon because every now and then a girl and her hair need a trip to the salon (and since I got a dry cut they only charged me $20 which meant it was free, aside from the $4 tip!). My hairstylist, Emily, seemed to relate to my hair woes (apparently we have the same hair type) and also did a great job of up-selling me to come back this Thursday to get my hair colored. Ok, so maybe I made it a little too easy by talking about how much I loved her hair color (vibrant copper) and how bored I was with mine. The dilemma is - which way do I go? Originally, I was just going to go back to old faithful - chestnut brown. It's tried and true, I know I like it. But then there's the adventurous side of me that wants to do the complete opposite and go that great copper route. Maybe not all over copper - I think that might be a little too adventurous. Not to mention, if I pay salon prices to dye it and then I hate it, I'll kick myself. So maybe just copper highlights? Let's look at some pictures to aid in this decision:

My current hair color:

What it looks like dark brown:

Variations of copper:

 

The hair color on the left - extreme. Beautiful on this girl, but probably won't translate well on me. At least, I'm not confident. I love the color, but I think I'd end up looking like Ronald McDonald. The hair color in the middle is pretty similar to what my hairstylists was. Again, this would be a pretty extreme color for me to jump to - but maybe just get highlights of this color? The hair on the right is actually my favorite - it's soft and warm and I love that she has brown low lights on the bottom. However if I copied this it would probably be expensive (I'd be using two different colors) plus it might not be enough of a change that you'd really notice a difference (not worth the money). As you can see, this is such a serious, serious thing for me to consider!

Actually, it's so not. And despite the length of this post, I actually don't spend too much mental energy trying to decide what to do with my hair. However, my appointment is this Thursday, and since I'm going to a wedding on Friday I really don't want to mess this up.

So now is your opportunity weigh in and give me your votes on what you think I should do!
Since first posting this, Tim has said this was the color he had in mind. Thoughts?