I thought it necessary to post my hair progression since I dropped the blonde bomb.
You can't see the red, but it really was cherry red. Anyhow, my roots started coming in, so I dyed it brown and got bangs:
The red still shows through in the back, it's just a bit darker. The top has faded since that photo. Instead of being chocolate brown, it's pretty much back to the color my hair was before I dyed it black.
Also, the semester is over!