“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.

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!