I am growing my hair out for locks of love and it seems like it has just gotten dingy and blah. Is there a gloss thingy? I am willing to go to the salon.

i315.photobucket.com . . .
Without my layers fanned out...bizarre looking
i315.photobucket.com . . .
i315.photobucket.com . . .
i315.photobucket.com . . .

My hair is not normally straight, I just got bored. I generally just sleep on it then sport the hippy look with definitely shows the dinginess (it is so thick and unmanageable that I gave up unless I have like an hour and a half)
And obviously the flash of the camara does make a difference but I don't feel like walking around with a lamp on my head

My hair tends to get like that too (I've had mine down to my almost my hips before), but I don't really thinks yours looks that bad. I normally do a deep conditioning treatment which really helps.

You said that it takes an hour and a half to straighten your hair... mine is thick and unmanageable too, but it doesn't take an hour and a half to straighten. Are you using a decent straighter (Chi, GHD, etc) or something like Conair? Cheap straighteners will damage your hair and make it look like crap. They also take wayyy longer to straighten your hair. Mine takes about 20 minutes now that I have a good straightener, but I used to have a Revlon straightener and it took forever. So definitely invest in a good straightener if you're going to straighten your hair at all.

I guess I should mean by straightening, the process of brushing, blow drying (takes the longest) and Chi-ing.

You need a trim. your ends look to' up in that picture where your facing away from the camera. I'd get a trim, a malibu treatment, a good deep conditioner, and a color gloss treatment.

What is a malibu treatment and a color gloss treatment?