“Heard of rainbow hair?” I said, “You wanted me to go more platinum blonde. Ok. Deal. And when I do, I want that.” I showed her a photo.
She said, “You’re feeling radical?”
I said, “I’ve always been radical, you just never asked.”
But clearly this was beyond my hair stylist’s comfort zone so I gave up.
I said instead, “I’m tired of blonde highlights to hide the grey. Can you do lowlights and make it one shade darker?”
They said (I tried more than one): “Weeelll…I could, but with your skin coloring don’t you want to be blonde?”
I said, “With my skin coloring, yellow blonde makes me look tired. I’m the mother of a toddler. I don’t need help looking tired. Can we do something different?”
They said, “But you can be blonde. Don’t you want to be blonde??”
I said, “If y’all aren’t going to help me be something other than blonde, I’m going to get a box of home dye and do it myself. If I mess up, so what. Hair will always grow out.”
She said, “You’re daring.”
I said, “Honey, I ditched my whole life and moved to a different country. You think I’m afraid of a little change?”
So here I am. Three boxes of home dye and a few months later, I’ve got the right shade. Nothing fell out, and I didn’t even have to resort to chopping anything off.
I’m still annoyed at my hairdresser for not listening to me and/or not knowing enough to do techniques I know are possible (and I’m not really a hairstyling maven here, so what I’m suggesting probably isn’t rocket science). As a data point, a layered haircut here consists of pulling your hair into a ponytail and cutting it. Every hairdresser does the same.damn.thing. In front for light layers, in back for more dramatic ones. Which is ingenious, really, but definitely NOT complicated.
I said to my husband, “I tried to book an appointment with my hairstylist but no luck. I can never find time. I’m tempted to just cut my hair myself.”
“By yourself?” He said, “Really? You’re daring.”
I said, “I feel like I’ve had this conversation before.”
Yep. Color and cut by yours truly. I think I might never go back.
The New Do’ (What? It looks a lot like my profile photo from five years ago? Yes, that’s kinda the point I’ve been trying to make all along.)
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And your hair looks great! I’ve been cutting my hair myself here as well. Annnndddd I’ve gotten the same, “Don’t you want to be blonde?” question again and again. Admittedly, I did get blonde highlights recently, but only because my cunhada did them for free. But previous to that I found the box dye here to be TERRIBLE in quality. I opted for coffee soaks to keep my color bright. I brewed coffee, added some conditioner to the wet grounds, and slathered all over my hair. I used the brewed coffee to soak my hair first though. I threw a grocery bag and then a towel over my hair and let it soak for an hour. A dye job it was not, but it did make my hair color warmer and my hair much softer. And hey, coffee is abundant and cheap..
coffee soaks! What a neat idea! I’ve used coffee and tea to dye clothes before, of course it would work on hair too… I’ve been using the L’Oreal brand. Stuff like this, I usually start by paying the extra to go with the American brand that I know then slowly branching outwards. Sounds like maybe I shouldn’t bother trying the others!
ALSO, I did use jello to dye my hair once upon a teenage-life. The color never came out bright.. but if you want rainbow colored hair, it’s an option!