Fall is a changing season: the weather gets cool, the leaves change colors, and you add some sweaters to your wardrobe. But, contrary to what the beauty industry tells you, one thing that doesn’t have to change is your hair color.

I know so many girls who spend a ton of money every season changing up their color. Don’t! There’s an alternative to coloring your hair that will still give you a little boost and that much-desired change we all crave at the beginning of a new year: clear glazes! I got mine from L’oreal Paris at RiteAid (cheap!), and it looks like I just got my hair professionally dyed because it’s so super shiny.

Want to make a change? I’ve got the DL.

But now I’m beginning to realize that maybe my brunette locks aren’t doing so much for me after all.  In a recent article it is stated that blonde women are paid 7% more than brunettes, red heads and even those people dabbling in the purples, pinks and blues. (OK, maybe those last few aren’t so surprising.) And if that isn’t enough bad news for those of us not blessed with Blake Lively’s luscious locks, it looks like blondes also tend to marry wealthier men.

WTF? Can’t you leave a little somethin’ somethin’ for the rest of us?

This better mean there are more people with blonde hair running around; that is the only explanation I can come up with. Or that it costs more to upkeep a blonde mane, so people can afford to dye their hair blonde after landing that amazing job. Or maybe blondes really do have more fun and land the successful business men who need a good time. Or maybe blondes never have fun and still make as much as everyone else does, and these statistics are about as authentic as The Hills.

So what do you have to say about all this? What is it about blondes? Is going blonde the key to every woman’s future success, or is this study just bananas?

I’m ‘dyeing’ to know (tee hee) what you think. I’m also making an appointment at the salon to bring back those golden highlights. With graduation looming, I’ll take any advantage I can get!

And they really like Sandra Bullock and Taylor Swift.

Is “The Notebook” going to Broadway?

Are you eating too fast?

Find the perfect hair color for you.

Bad news for Simon Cowell lovers.

Dress yourself 10 pounds thinner.

But what are the kinds of things that you would never want to find in your guy’s room? Besides the very obvious (unrecognizable panties, bras, earrings, condom wrappers) I can name a few…

1. Super Creepy Porn.

You can pretty much accept the fact that there will be some form of porn in your guy’s room at some point. You can also be fairly sure that you will accidentally intercept said pornography via mail, browser history or that shoebox under his bed. (Tip: boys don’t want you to surprise them with spring cleaning; you probably shouldn’t want to surprise them with it either.) No big deal, I say, come to terms with the fact that while your guy absolutely loves hooking up with you, he will still want to look at porn. It’s just a different outlet for their sexuality and can actually improve your sex life when seen from the right perspective. Additionally, it’s a good substitute for when your boyfriend wants to get it on (always) and you don’t (rarely, but it happens). If there were no porn there would be an abnormally high amount of blue balls or of extremely exhausted girlfriends.

All the benefits of porn aside, though, there are some types you don’t want to find. I’m not even talking about anal, little people or ridiculously oversized toys (all pretty normal in porn-world.) I’m talking animals. I’m talking leprechaun-on mermaid-on Easter bunny 3-ways. I’m talking about really flattering pictures of you superimposed over the faces of “interacting” nuns (definitely not real Catholics). Unless your man has previously shared his kink-tastic ways with you, skeevy porn is definitely something you do not want to find in your man’s room…unless you’re into it…

2. Bloody Clothes.

You’d think this would be a pretty huge red flag, but there are plenty of excuses as to why your man might have bloody clothes in his room. Perhaps he is an outdoorsman who enjoys slaughtering deer on weekends. Maybe he was building you a birdhouse and things went seriously wrong with the electrical sander. Or, for those of use with the more typical college boyfriend, he was drunk and tripped on/punched/tried to cartwheel over something and got hurt doing it. All of those reasons aside, should you find a duffel bag with a black turtleneck, jogging pants, ski mask and/or machete covered in blood, run for the hills, girl.

3. A Shrine-Like Gathering of Your Personal Items.

Remember Helga from “Hey! Arnold”? Yea, the crazy blonde who built a very realistic rendition of Arnold out of his used gum. Well you just found a creepily similar statue tucked behind your man’s winter coats. It’s a great complement to the ring of scented votives in a circle around the pair of panties you wore the first time you two hooked up (you knew they went missing…), a suspiciously your-hair-colored hairball, pictures of you undressing that look like they were taken from a distance and old love letters…to your ex-boyfriends, dating back to Aaron from 4th grade. I can’t see how this would be construed as flattering, so don’t even let that thought enter your head, ladies – Noah built Allie a house, not a shrine. Hint: if you find this in his closet, I’d start looking around for the bloody clothes, just to be sure…

4. His “Meds.”

If one day you are innocently on the hunt for some ibuprofen and you find his prescription for anti-psychosis meds, it’s probably not a great sign. If you continue to look for more pills that he neglected to tell you he was on and find a cocktail of Xanax, Percocets, Valtrex and Penicillin it’s definitely a bad sign. Either homeboy has some serious dirt to spill about his last few check-ups, or you might just be dating a drug dealer. Either way, not disclosing certain ailments he has (STD’s, mental disorders, the usual) is a serious breach of trust and needs to be dealt with right away. My suggestion is to call the cops on his RX-happy ass or, if you’re into illegal activity and desperately in need of Spring Break funds, swipe ‘em and ask your most trusted sketchy friend where a gal goes about selling these kinds of things.

5. His other phone.

We all know that going through a loved one’s phone is a huge invasion of privacy and can often end in a breakup (as opposed to going through a stranger’s phone that you found at Happy Hour before returning it to them, which can often end in hilarity.) But let’s say you’re just lounging around one morning that you skipped class, watching some Ellen while your honey picks up bagels for some breakfast in bed. You hear a strange humming, it’s not your phone, and you check his charger—nope, not his phone either. But this vibration is pretty persistent, almost as persistent as an ex-girlfriend trying to get in touch with your boyfriend…

With this hunch, you get up to investigate, put Ellen on mute, and walk around the room listening for the bzzzz. You slowly open his sock drawer, where a mysterious blue light is glowing from the dress sock section (ok he probably doesn’t have his socks categorized, but you get it). You pick up a phone that you’ve never seen before. Michelle Great Rack is calling. You answer, presumably to help this Michelle put her great rack to use with whoever this phone really belongs to, only to have her coo your boyfriend’s name in a very phone-sex inducing voice. After explaining to Michelle that she and her rack have been aiding a cheating lying scumbag, you sift through dirty texts, inappropriate pictures, and AIM conversations so smooth your soon to be ex could be in a shaving cream commercial. You forward a few choice messages to your guy’s “legit” phone before calling him and telling him what you found in his room.

What would make you run screaming from your man’s apartment? Have you ever found any of the above items? Did you stick around long enough to tell him why you won’t be sleeping over anymore?

It’s Thursday again and that means it’s time for another round of Weekly Obsessions!

This week has been a mix of the last days of warm weather and the gray dreary days of Fall, so I’ve been trying my best to counteract any kind of gloominess with tons of color and fun!

First things first:

Fashion Obsession: Colorful Hair!

On Monday, I woke up feeling like I needed a change–any change. Simply, I was bored. And what do I do when I’m bored? I change my hair color! I’ve had all sorts of wacky colors and cuts through the years but I wanted something drastic.

I made my way down to SoHo to the Arrojo Studios where I asked my awesome colorist to make me as blonde as possible. She took one look at my dark brown hair and I could already tell it would be impossible. Going from dark brown to platinum would be a painful, all-day process.

Such a bummer. (Sidenote: If Japanese girls can go blonde, why can’t I?)

She salvaged the situation by putting some (subtle) blue and pink bits all throughout the front of my hair which I completely love. Maybe after a little more planning I’ll be able to go lighter, but for now, I’m loving the new streaks.

For those of you not quite ready to take the plunge? Get a wig! Halloween is coming up so there’s no better excuse to try out something completely ridiculous (and hilarious!).

Leisure Obsession: Zines!

To me, Zines scream “1999!”, but for some reason, this week I’ve been totally infatuated.

For those of you who are in the dark right now, according to Wikipedia, Zines are a small circulation, non-commercial publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest.

You can usually find zines within any kind of underground movement, or in a lot of our cases, on college campuses. They cover all kinds of topics. I’ve seen some fantastically creative ones that cover anything from vegetarianism to punk rock.

Lucky for us, there are lots of places to find interesting zines online. And for you ambitious folks out there, you can read up on how to self-publish here.

Tech Obsession: Completely Useless (But Fun!) Gadgets We May Use…But Probably Won’t!

Maybe I’m nuts, but when I read about new inventions or concepts that are pretty much useless it doesn’t matter–as long as they look cool, I’m so down.

So, it makes sens that I freaked out when I saw this. Amazing!! It looks like Lite-Brite which, anyone who knows me personally can tell you, I adore.

Apparently, they do this kind of stuff in Vegas but I’ve never been there so I’m going to just have to swoon over these pictures until I can get my butt out to Nevada to gamble my savings away.

And check this out! I know people, I know. We can all just wipe our mirrors off with a towel or something, but this is just hilarious. They should sell these babies with a guarantee that you’ll have a good giggle every morning after your shower…that should move a few off the shelves, right?

Food Obsession: Shabu-Shabu Restaurants!

Have you guys seen these? If we’re talking fun this week, these Japanese restaurants are it. It’s basically like beef fondue, if you want to put it simply.

What happens is, when you sit down you get raw beef (or pork, lobster, crab, chicken, or duck) which you submerge in a pot of boiling water to cook. Then you get an array of dipping sauces to spice up your poached meat.

To me, it’s like a welcome variation to sushi (thank God) that everyone can enjoy together…and that’s the most fun!

So we all know how expensive dying our hair is. And when you’re in college, it really sucks to have to shell out $200 every three to six months to get your roots re-touched and highlights re-done at an expensive salon. As a highlighted blonde myself, I’ve discovered a few (cheap) products that can help extend time between colorings.

Paul Mitchell’s Color Protect Shampoo is great for the daily washing of color-treated hair. It gently cleanses while adding strength, elasticity and body and contains sunscreens to extend the life and longevity of your hair’s color.

Sunsilk has two lines out specially formulated for blondes and brunettes. Each line contains a shampoo, a conditioner and a Color Boost for either highlighters or all-over colorers. I LOVE the Sunsilk Color Boost for Blonde Highlights! The gentle colorants actually bind the hair cuticle to add subtle, yet noticeable color. (Sunsilk Color Boost is actually the first mass product to use salon brand color technology) You can use the Color Boost one to three times a week, and when you do, there’s no need to use a conditioner because this product will leave your hair silky and smooth.

Finally, guard your color every day with SAMY’s color-lock spray. This unique spray is specially designed to help retain and protect the life of any hair color. Specially formulated to strengthen, condition and nourish any type of color-treated hair, it protects, prolongs and enhances hair color life between shampoos. The spray helps maintain long-lasting hair color vibrancy with it’s gentle anti-fade, non-stripping formulation. The lightweight mist not only shields hair color from heat styling damage, but also protects color treated hair from the sun with its unique UV absorber. Spray evenly on towel dried hair and comb through. Style as desired. For optimal color protection & vibrancy, use daily, especially before applying any styling product or exposure to the sun.