Hair color catastrophe!
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Wash with dandruff shampoo |
Anonymous
|
I didn’t do anything yesterday except to avoid all mirrors and binge watch Dickensian (brilliant BBC series that I highly recommend if you’re a Dickens fan) and feel sorry for myself.
To say that I loathe this hair color is the understatement of the year - and it sapped all the joy from getting my hair colored, because usually for days after a salon treatment I’m loving to look at my hair and feeling pretty and instead I’m hiding from mirrors and feeling like a goth freak. (Nothing against goths, it’s just not my thing.) Thank goodness I have half a bottle of T-gel in the house, I’ll be washing with it today and every day for the next couple of weeks. I hope it fades the color quickly. To make matters worse I let them put permanent color on my hair which I haven’t used in decades - always semi permanent. If I had at least stuck with semi permanent . . . I’m laying in bed procrastinating getting up because it means I will have to see myself in a mirror. Ugh. One of the main characters in Dickensian - Amelia Havisham of Great Expectations - has very dark hair, and it looks lovely on her. One of the other main characters - Honoria Barbary, the future Lady Deadlock of Bleak House - has glorious auburn hair, the shade I usually color mine. Needless to say I was distracted by this while watching. But did I mention how terrific the series is? Very sad that BBC cancelled it after only one season - solely a budgetary decision as it was critically acclaimed and a fan favorite. Seriously put it in your watchlist and check it out if you’re a Dickens fan - it’s most of the best characters melded into one universe, very clever and beautifully produced. Ugh. Need to go deal with my ugly goth hair and this otherwise beautiful day. *sigh* Sometimes I just want to scream at life - like the big shit you’ve dumped on me isn’t enough, you gotta dump little shit like this on me too?! I can’t even have consistently pretty hair?! Gah! |
Anonymous
If you feel this awful (and I’ve been there) you really do need to go get highlights. You’ll feel tons better. A good colorist can get you a lot closer to where you want to be. If you’re strapped for money you can definitely use OOPS but don’t leave it in too long and have a box of the correct color ready. You may want to go one lighter shade because the one time I had to use OOPS and then my regular color it was a little darker than usual, but at least I didn’t look like Ronald Reagan anymore. |
Anonymous
| I thought permanent hair color doesn’t fade. Does it fade? |
Anonymous
It does a little bit and eventually. But not enough. |
Anonymous
| My hair lightens considerably in the sun. Can you sit outside for a few hours today and tomorrow? Will that help? |
Anonymous
This totally made me laugh! I think this is why I don’t like this very dark shade on me - it looks too severe like I used Just for Men lol. Definitely Reagan-esque! Yeah I think I will have to reach out to the stylist and talk about next steps. She gave me her number at the end of the service because I do want to possibly follow her to whatever salon she ends up at - she’s very nice and I think talented, the poor color choice is more about me not being assertive and knowledgeable enough about this stuff. One reason I like box color is there’s a picture of someone with a full head of hair in the color so you can grasp the full effect. A tiny little hair swatch is hard to visualize from. I’m not sure I want to mess with color remover and another color on my own - I think it might be smarter to let the salon handle it. The costs are very low there - a color is only $25 and I’m guessing the color remove application won’t be even that expensive. I’ll keep y’all posted on the unfolding adventure of my quest for color zen. |
Anonymous
| Is this beauty school in DC? I’m interested in trying it. I have black brown hair naturally, but light to medium skin. I’m Indian. I’ve been dying it to black or brown black for years. I’d like to go lighter, but have no idea what to do and can’t bear going gray. |
Anonymous
No sorry, I’m in Massachusetts. However I googled ‘Washington DC beauty schools’ and came up with a good sized list of cosmetology schools in DC and the surrounding MD/VA suburbs that look good, including a Paul Mitchell school and an Aveda school. I love the cosmetology school because I love helping folks learn - it’s also less expensive but it’s more time consuming, although they do expect the students to be able to provide a service in close to the same time frame they would at a salon as that’s obviously what they’re training to do. And there is always a very experienced stylist/instructor on hand to step in if it looks like the student needs a hand. In fairness the instructor did tell me that the color I was choosing would be darker than what I had when I went in, I just didn’t visualize *how much* darker. I don’t blame this experience on the school other than if it had been a stylist who knew me well I think she would have said ‘this is not at all like what you’ve done in the past are you sure it’s what you want’ and that might have made me pause. The student stylist was just very accommodating and not very assertive which is typical of many students but not an issue if you’re clear about what you want going in. Overall I really recommend cosmetology school salons. |
Anonymous
|
So I reached out to the stylist and she booked me an appointment for this morning. She offered the option of highlighting to lighten the color, but I opted for a bleach wash (apparently less damaging than color remover) with another color applied afterward.
However after the bleach wash, which was on approximately 20-25 minutes, she blow dried my hair in preparation for another color application and we both agreed that the new color after the bleach wash lightened the color was just really, really nice. The wash stripped off the really dark brown and left the reddish undertone that was barely peeking through before. Now my hair is a medium auburn brown with gorgeous highlights from the grays that don’t fully take the color. I’m really pleased and glad that we were able to avoid a double processing today. The bleach wash definitely did some damage but my hair was super healthy before so it’s nothing that won’t be alleviated with some great conditioning products - I just received an order of Aveda Sap Moss so I should be all set in that regard. Meanwhile I had played around with some of the color try out tools on various hair color websites online last night, and have identified half a dozen colors I want to try in the coming months/years. In particular I really liked how my complexion looked with lavender hair if you can believe that! But as I’m presently on a job search I think that’s something to save for a little further down the road - some folks really judge novelty hair color and I don’t need any extra baggage on top of the age discrimination I already face in a midlife career change. |
Anonymous
| Wash your hair with Head & Shoulders a few days, it will lighten the color. |