So, you might remember a while back when I I tried a new product out on my hair in an attempt to get back toward my natural hair color. This is the follow-up to that post, or the next exciting stage in an adventure I like to call Let's Make My Hair All One Color Again.
Last weekend a couple of girlfriends and I went to get our hair done. It's always nice to have someone to chat with when you know you are going to be there for a few hours. Added bonus: you have people there to talk you down from doing something terribly stupid to your head.
Let's have a bit of a refresher, shall we? This is the before picture of my hair. (Do I really have to mention again that I hate taking selfies and kind of suck at it? It's the truth. You have no idea how many attempts -- complete with totally dropping the damn phone -- it took to get these gems.)
Totally took it in the bathroom, too! Way to embrace the cliche!
As you can see, it's not remotely the same color on the ends as on the top. In fact, there are about 4 or 5 different colors on my head in that picture. It kind of slowly got darker as it got to the ends, and then there were my roots at the top. An unintentional reverse-ombre effect, if you will. It was also fried beyond belief on the ends. Time to take more drastic measures.
My hairdresser, after seating me in her chair, asked what was going on with my hair, what were we doing.
My answer? "It's a hot mess."
I explained my quest to get it back to being all one color, as close to my natural color as possible sans the grey hair. I told her all about the Color Oops experiment. She had never heard of the product, and understandably did not want to go pouring any other color removal/stripping agents on my head since she didn't know what exactly I had done to myself. I also told her that my hair takes red really easily, and had given several previous stylists trouble. I don't want to look like Ronald McDonald.
She also wanted to know what brand of hair dye I had been using when I did my hair. I told her Garnier. Turns out Garnier is hella good at locking the color onto your hair, which is awesome when you want your hair color to last. Not so awesome when you want to remove it. I also learned that I had been doing my hair wrong for pretty much the entire time. I always did my roots first, then worked the color out to the ends. Apparently that is a very bad thing to do to your hair. I should have just stopped with the roots. Doing the ends every time means the color builds up (which I thought was the problem when I used the Color Oops), and that is why they are so much darker. Learn from my mistakes, Friends! I thought I was being smart and making sure my head would all look the same color, but I was pretty much guaranteeing the opposite. Just dye your roots!
And then we discussed how much would have to be cut off. I knew that was coming. The state my poor hair was in I knew a lot of it would have to take its leave. She actually asked me how much I was willing to cut off, which was unexpected. Normally I just get told how much needs to go, or it gets "trimmed" and you deal with it afterward, at least in my experience. This was a new and refreshing experience. I told her she could go as short as chin-level: do what you've got to do.
We ended up going with a less drastic approach. She ended up cutting off about 5 inches in the front, and 9 inches in the back where my hair was longer. That's a lot of freaking hair, and that brought it back up to about shoulder length. There is still some of the darker color on the ends, but we decided to take a gradual approach to let it grow out and get trimmed over time until it was totally gone. It really isn't that noticeable with the rest of my hair, even now that it has been brought back to my natural color on top.
You want to see the fancy finished picture, taken while I was still freshly styled? I know you do. Why the hell else would you still be reading at this point?
Finished product! Allow me to explain the face.
I told you I suck at selfies! That is literally the only one I took of the hair, and that is the only reason you are seeing it. You see, it was a very humid and rainy day. Even with the anti-frizz magic she worked, that shit lasted about 5 minutes after leaving the salon. My hair has a mind of its own and will not be controlled!
Between ogling my new 'do, trying to take a selfie, and probably running my mouth to my friends....this is what you get.
It looked very nice with the big soft curls. It will never look like that again. Well, not until my next appointment when she can do that again. I don't own a blow dryer or a curling iron. (The horror! Sacrilege!) I know. I'm a disappointment to all female members of the human race. I can't be bothered to spend untold hours of my life trying to get my hair to do things it doesn't want to do, and which it will do its level best to undo as rapidly as possible. I put in effort to get it looking decent and pulled together -- I'm not a total slob. I prefer to work with it, rather than against it, when possible.
I guess this would be the real "after" picture, then, as it is what my hair looks like normally, if I haven't pulled it back.
Taken at the end of the day. Can you tell it was humid outside? And we are back to the cliche bathroom shot!
Yeah. Chopping off several inches of hair makes the curls come back a lot more. Also why I don't own a curling iron. I don't think the darker color left on the ends is really visible at all.
In short: I look good.
You can disagree if you want, but it won't make a difference. It's my head and I like it.
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