I never thought that I’d ever say “29 is the new 22,” and especially not in a good way.  For the first time since I turned 22, I had a bit of a quarter life crisis freak out about getting older and yeah, you might consider it a bit of a meltdown.  Thankfully my BFF since 4th grade (and, ironically the friend that talked me off the ledge on my 22nd birthday), managed to calm me down with her words of wisdom.  Essentially, she reminded me that 29 is, in fact, not old and I have to learn to accept my life for what it is and not what I thought it would be as a teenager.

With that said, I am so insanely lucky to have found such amazing friends in Los Angeles…sometimes I honestly have to take a minute to soak it all in, which I did at my birthday sushi dinner last Friday night where sixteen of my closest friends celebrated my 29th birthday with me.  It felt good to be surrounded by all of the positive people in my LA life, and, I had brand new George Papanikolas highlights to boot!  As anyone knows, fresh highlights can really give your self esteem the super boost that it needs when you’re in the middle of a quarter(ish) life crisis and George knows exactly how to get the blonde that I covet (hello, he does Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nicole Richie).

I can’t say enough about George (you might remember my post from last January) where I raved about George’s balayage skills and, of course, Joico– one of my favorite hair brands.  Right now I’m obsessed with the Joico Smooth Cure line and especially the Smooth Cure Thermal Styling Protectant.  The line reduces frizz by 79% (yeah, that’s a lot) and even though I don’t really worry too much about frizz/humid hair here in LA, I do worry about protecting my hair from heat styling tools, and the Thermal Protectant spray is a-mazing for that.