Monday, June 12, 2006
From Goth To Glam In 7 Days
OR - how to finagle (is that a word? Finagle? I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong) 2 afternoons without the kids getting your hair done.
I believe I've mentioned on more than one occasion my rising concern with the ever-growing number of gray hair cropping up on my head. I was certain that it was just proliferating in and around my part (no matter where I parted my hair... la la la I'm still in denial), but then I noticed some grays creeping in behind my ear. Sort of a bad place to be 2-toned when you wear your hair up most days. But THEN my friend/hairstylist informed me that, "oh no, you've got gray hair popping up in the back, too. It's pretty much all over your head now. Sorry." I suddenly felt like I'd been sucker-punched. Ouch.
On a tight law school budget I wasn't able to get my hair professionally done very often. Therefore, I resorted to (gasp!) dyeing my own hair from color purchased from a drug store. The brand wasn't as important as whether something was on sale. I could find a color close enough to my natural in most lines. No biggie. And I only did it 3-4 times per year. Not terribly often, in other words. Just enough to keep the fucking grays in check. But when I took my cheap-ass dyed hair to a real salon, the damage I'd done became terribly evident.
"yes, your hair has probably gotten much more porous with the store-bought dye products. The virgin hair on top is better, but with the grays it's harder to cover well. I'm sure we can fix you right up, but it's going to be tricky and involved."
A few hours later I walked out of there with a new cut (well, trim - I'm growing it longer) and color. It was still slightly damp, so I knew it was a smidge darker than it would be when it dried. Flash-forward a few hours and completely dried hair: FUCK!
Um, this is NOT my normal, natural color minus gray. No, this is more than a few shades darker. I'd go so far as to call it Goth. A bit dramatic for my taste. And flat. Devoid of any life. Very black, and very dull. NOT what I was envisioning at all. But no grays! There was a silver lining. A very thin silver lining. So I called my friend/hairstylist and told her I wasn't completely thrilled with the color and was hoping she could fix me. "yes, yes I'd be happy to correct your color but I can't do it until next Saturday. Say around 11am?"
That was ONE.WEEK.AWAY. 7 days of being very Goth stretched ahead of me. Ggrreeeaattt. I pretty much wore my hair in a ponytail the entire week and avoided as many people as possible. But you can never avoid your mother, it seems, no matter how hard you try.
"oh honey -! You got your hair colored and it's so dark! Too dark. It does NOT suit you. Please go do something with that hair! You can't wear it down, not like that. Put it in a ponytail or something and get it off your face."
Um, thanks mom.
So a week goes by and I get to take yet another Saturday off to read trashy mags and chat with chatty women while my hair gets handled. Maybe I should pre-arrange hair disasters in the future so I can get away with doing this again, because I was not complaining about the time away being "pampered". They did some process where they sort of worked backwards - from tip back to root - where the color was being sucked right out of my hair little by little. The ends were certainly darker than the root, what with them being so porous and all. After about 30 minutes, they rinsed me out and everyone waited with baited breath to see what happened with my color. They blew it dry straight instead of it's natural wavy curl so they could get a better look at the color, and ....
IT TURNED OUT PERFECT! It's like the BEST color I've ever had. It's my natural color, only a little jazzier. There is light and life to this color. There are hints of dark auburn, which compliment my pasty skin tones. I should have been born a redhead, I swear. I have pale, pale skin with freckles and blue eyes. If that doesn't scream redhead I don't know what does. But instead I was given very dull, medium-dark brown hair. Nothing special. But this color is that, only better. Only what it should be naturally. I love love love it!
And as bad as my week was looking like the Goth poster child was, it was so totally worth it if it led me to this new color.
va-va-va-VOOM, baby!
I believe I've mentioned on more than one occasion my rising concern with the ever-growing number of gray hair cropping up on my head. I was certain that it was just proliferating in and around my part (no matter where I parted my hair... la la la I'm still in denial), but then I noticed some grays creeping in behind my ear. Sort of a bad place to be 2-toned when you wear your hair up most days. But THEN my friend/hairstylist informed me that, "oh no, you've got gray hair popping up in the back, too. It's pretty much all over your head now. Sorry." I suddenly felt like I'd been sucker-punched. Ouch.
On a tight law school budget I wasn't able to get my hair professionally done very often. Therefore, I resorted to (gasp!) dyeing my own hair from color purchased from a drug store. The brand wasn't as important as whether something was on sale. I could find a color close enough to my natural in most lines. No biggie. And I only did it 3-4 times per year. Not terribly often, in other words. Just enough to keep the fucking grays in check. But when I took my cheap-ass dyed hair to a real salon, the damage I'd done became terribly evident.
"yes, your hair has probably gotten much more porous with the store-bought dye products. The virgin hair on top is better, but with the grays it's harder to cover well. I'm sure we can fix you right up, but it's going to be tricky and involved."
A few hours later I walked out of there with a new cut (well, trim - I'm growing it longer) and color. It was still slightly damp, so I knew it was a smidge darker than it would be when it dried. Flash-forward a few hours and completely dried hair: FUCK!
Um, this is NOT my normal, natural color minus gray. No, this is more than a few shades darker. I'd go so far as to call it Goth. A bit dramatic for my taste. And flat. Devoid of any life. Very black, and very dull. NOT what I was envisioning at all. But no grays! There was a silver lining. A very thin silver lining. So I called my friend/hairstylist and told her I wasn't completely thrilled with the color and was hoping she could fix me. "yes, yes I'd be happy to correct your color but I can't do it until next Saturday. Say around 11am?"
That was ONE.WEEK.AWAY. 7 days of being very Goth stretched ahead of me. Ggrreeeaattt. I pretty much wore my hair in a ponytail the entire week and avoided as many people as possible. But you can never avoid your mother, it seems, no matter how hard you try.
"oh honey -! You got your hair colored and it's so dark! Too dark. It does NOT suit you. Please go do something with that hair! You can't wear it down, not like that. Put it in a ponytail or something and get it off your face."
Um, thanks mom.
So a week goes by and I get to take yet another Saturday off to read trashy mags and chat with chatty women while my hair gets handled. Maybe I should pre-arrange hair disasters in the future so I can get away with doing this again, because I was not complaining about the time away being "pampered". They did some process where they sort of worked backwards - from tip back to root - where the color was being sucked right out of my hair little by little. The ends were certainly darker than the root, what with them being so porous and all. After about 30 minutes, they rinsed me out and everyone waited with baited breath to see what happened with my color. They blew it dry straight instead of it's natural wavy curl so they could get a better look at the color, and ....
IT TURNED OUT PERFECT! It's like the BEST color I've ever had. It's my natural color, only a little jazzier. There is light and life to this color. There are hints of dark auburn, which compliment my pasty skin tones. I should have been born a redhead, I swear. I have pale, pale skin with freckles and blue eyes. If that doesn't scream redhead I don't know what does. But instead I was given very dull, medium-dark brown hair. Nothing special. But this color is that, only better. Only what it should be naturally. I love love love it!
And as bad as my week was looking like the Goth poster child was, it was so totally worth it if it led me to this new color.
va-va-va-VOOM, baby!
// posted by MP @ 5:13 PM 
Comments:
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No fair to write about how "fab" your hair is and not post pics! Come on, indulge us here so we can live vicariously through you!
# posted by 
: 7:05 AM
: 7:05 AM
um, yeah, sorry - no pictures. My daughter got ahold of our (crappy) digital camera and promptly figured out how to open the section that held the media card. After removing the media card, she decided to see what would happen if she BENT the media card. Because, y'know, why not? THEN she tried cramming it back into the camera, scratching stuff and causing all sorts of damage. Bottom line: the camera is wrecked - and it's such an old camera that you can't really buy replacement media cards for it anymore. So no pics from me anytime soon. Sorry...
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