This morning, I made an appointment to get my hair cut and colored. I had it dyed red a while back, but the red didn't hold, which pisses me off because my MOM was a redhead, so you'd think I'd have some red hair genes in there somewhere, but no. My hair won't hold red. So then I got it highlighted blond(er), and that looks nice, but holy hell it looks like crap when it starts growing out.
My hair used to be blond. Like, REALLY blond. See:
And it stayed blond, right through my twenties, but then it started to darken. I was absurdly heartbroken several years ago when I had to get a passport photo taken and I was officially classified as "brunette"(WHAT?!).
So, now it's "brunette" (DAMMIT) with blond highlights, except I'm not really enamored of the whole thing. I think I might just have it dyed, somewhere in between the "brunette" (F*CKIT) color and the blond with which it's currently highlighted.
Here's what it looks like now:
LOOK HOW AWFUL IT LOOKS ON THE TOP, THERE. Look at those "brunette" (SOB) roots. That is NO BUENO. Visible roots are TACKY AS SH*T.
And I really should just go back to my natural color, because let's face it, having your hair dyed ain't cheap, and visible roots when it starts to grow out look awful and I can't afford to go back every few weeks for a touchup, but I am STILL not reconciled to being a "brunette" (YECH.). Maybe ... maybe I should get it dyed darker than my natural color, so that when the roots start to grow out, they would be lighter? Ah god I SUCK at this stuff.
I dunno. What do you guys think?
And no, I was not just, like, hanging out in a random store with a kitten on a leash. We were there for an adoption event. I had an EXCUSE. *cough*
13 comments:
Red hair dye is notorious for being wussy and not lasting. It fades horrifically unless you go to extremes like showering in cold water. Not for me.
I'm definitely a brunette, but I have gone blonde in the past and roots are a pain in the behind. I did streaks a couple of times and that is definitely less obvious, but it's expensive and time consuming.
Recently I'm getting a lot of silver along the front, so I decided to take advantage of it, and did a reddish-brown - the silver is more "red" and the rest of the brown is just richer - so that worked out well :)
Go natural - it's too time consuming and frustrating fighting mother nature. The key is a good cut regularly. Any color looks good if you'll do that.
Kris
Clairol used to make a temporary coloring (Loving Care?) that I loved because you could do it at home, and about when roots would have been showing, the color would have been washing out, so you could stop altogether, repeat, or try a different color. For some unknown reason (a conspiracy to trap us into salons and permanent root repair?) all you can find now is permanent color.
I don't understand.
The way your hair looks now is not bad at all. It looks like last summer's sun-bleaching growing out. As proof that it looks natural (if the difference isn't too great), my grandbaby's hair looks just like that - but with medium brown roots and copper ends.
Perhaps what you need is something that works gradually. There used to be a product that you combed through your hair once a week or so. It lightened or added a little color with each use, and left no roots. You could apply it in such a way that you got natural-looking streaking. On long hair you could get too much buildup in the ends, but it worked fine with shoulder length or shorter hair. I haven't seen that in decades, either, but I haven't looked.
Women need to rebel against the permanent hair coloring trap and its associated salon requirements. Temporary colors ARE possible. I don't know why no company is making them.
And then I got curious, and did a little research. Google "hair lightening gradual". Lots of stuff out there, from an inexpensive spray from John Fieda to instructions for using lemons and honey.
(The old gradual lightening spray was "Sun-In", which several people claim appeared in the 80s. We were using it in the 60s!)
After many expensive and messy years, I let my hair grow out after taking it blonder. It's salt and pepper in the back, nearly pure white in front, Sometimes it takes me by surprise but in general I like it.
Ah, your hair looks fine and most people would kill to look like you. Never mind the horrors of "brunette", wait until some people making up an ID card for you fills in "Gray" under hair. You want to rise up from the chair shrieking, "Hey! HEY! It's still MOSTLY BROWN!"
Here is what is just WRONG: forcing a kitten to walk on its hind legs all around the store just to attract adopters........G.
("Some people fills?" Swell grammar, Ms. Fitter..........Sheesh)
spiffi, reddish-brown sounds good. Maybe I'll try that.
Kris, does "good cut" include "hacking at it in my bathroom when I can't afford a haircut"? I'm pathetic, aren't I?
~~Silk, a little archive searching revealed that I was using temporary (8 - 10 washes) coloring as recently as 2007, so the discontinuation must be fairly recent. Googling "semi-permanent hair color" turned up Clairol Natural Instincts (28 washes), although I recall frying my hair into straw using home stuff, so maybe not so much. And I DO remember my sister Ditzy using Sun-In back in the seventies!
Becs, my sister Texas went gray several years ago and looks awesome. I sincerely wish my hair would turn gray.
and Ginny, it is my duty to turn foster cats into performing circus monkeys. :)
Thank you so much for all of your input, everybody.
I don't really know why this whole hair color thing is bugging me so much - I don't tend to be vain, I swear, and I totally get that as an over-fifty woman without significant means, I might as well be invisible to most of the population. Which is fine. I just ... I dunno. I WANT MY BLOND BACK GOTDAMMIT. Effort- and money-free. It just needs to APPEAR BACK ON MY HEAD RIGHT NOW.
*sigh*
Uh...no, good cut does NOT involve you at the business end of the scissors :-). A good cut every 6 weeks costs way less than keeping color going.
Kris
Every six weeks?! I consider myself to be doing good if I get in to the hairdresser's every six months.
And therein lies the problem, I suspect.
And color can't really fix a bad cut but a good cut fixes everything :-) Just get a standing appointment and go...
Kris
Find a woman whose hair style always looks flattering and go to whoever does hers. As my boss once said, "most people wear their hair in really unflattering styles," and, ya know, he's right. Once you look at what people do with their hair, you can't help but wonder if they own mirrors :-) Good luck!
Kris again
Thanks, Kris. Now I'll be surreptitiously staring at everybody's head. :)
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