This all started the last time I had my hair cut. Once upon a time I used to get my hair colored at the salon, but there's no way I can afford that now, so I do it myself at home.
My husband goes to the same hair stylist, and after my last haircut, she told him that she thought I should go for a lighter brown color with highlights, instead of the reddish color to which my current shade tends to fade.
Well, obviously I'm not going to try to highlight my own hair, but I figured it sounded like advice worth taking into consideration. The next time I bought hair color, I chose a shade lighter than usual that was supposed to be "light golden brown." I figured that "golden" should outweigh the whole "reddish" thing. Boy, was I wrong.
My hair turned out light auburn - redder on the crown of my head than on the long part of my hair. It was not at all what I had in mind, but I lived with it for a couple of weeks out of a combination of laziness and a reluctance to overprocess my already frizz-prone hair.
Earlier this week, overcaffeinated at about 9:00 p.m. after a visit to a coffeehouse to see a friend and his wife do a reading from a screenplay they'd written, I decided to run by the drugstore on my way home and choose a new color. I also needed to choose a different brand because my usual kind wasn't covering any gray, which meant my most recent color was exacerbated by a "strawberry roan" effect.
I picked a brown shade that looked like the color I'd had before I started foolishly switching around. What did I end up with? Dark auburn with almost a purplish cast - still redder on top than on the sides, but at least covering the gray. Now, I'm no stranger to hair colors not found in nature. In the early '90s I went for a color called "burgundy" for a while, so I can live with weird colors when I choose to...if I do it on purpose. The good news is that this color is quite shiny, so at least the frizz factor has been nicely minimized.
I'm certainly not planning on coloring my hair again until the roots grow out a bit. I think it's been put through quite enough already. I'll just have to own the dramatic color as though I'd meant to have my hair that way. That is, if anyone even notices.
Jane, I am in the same boat. I usually get my hair highlighted at the salon too, but being out of work I really can't afford those prices anymore. I've been toying with doing my own hair at home, but have been afraid what color I might end up with...I'm a little too old to wind up with something dramatic/weird...I really need to stick with a color that can be found in nature. Maybe I should just go for it and not worry so much about it. Thanks for this post Jane.
Posted by: Joy Des Jardins | October 07, 2005 at 09:22 AM
Years ago a former girlfriend talked me into coloring my graying hair, goatee too. It was supposed to be dark brown, but it came out dark green. Being a guitar player I just switched to my green strat for a while, and people thought I was "edgy". I did take an awful lot of grief from the guys at work though. now I just live with the salt&pepper.
Posted by: Mikey | October 08, 2005 at 10:53 PM
Shave your head & start over.
Posted by: Pharmgirl | October 09, 2005 at 02:17 PM
And after you shave your head, I understand that Eva Gabor has a rather spiffy wig line.
Posted by: cj | October 09, 2005 at 08:46 PM