adventures in dyeland

I'm concerned about my hair.

I write this while waiting in my living room in trepidation, my hair coated in dye. Bluish-gray dye, to be specific.

I would not have admitted I dye. (A woman's beauty rituals are her own business, no?)  But the fact is already patently obvious, what with my hair regularly mutating from dark brown to auburn to copper and back again. In a city where salon color can cost hundreds, I also consider it a point of pride that even in a good economy I do it myself for $10. (I also do my own pedicures and my own eyebrows. And sometimes, out of desperation, I cut my own bangs, though I suspect it makes my stylist snicker.)

But this time, I'm not sure how things are going to turn out. You see, I did not set out to color my hair blue-gray. I intended to color my hair Clairol Perfect 10 shade 6.5A, Lightest Cool Brown. In dye parlance, "cool" means a shade without red or gold tones. I chose this one because I like to go darker in winter, and I wanted to cover up the aforementioned coppery blonde, which was starting to look alarmingly like this.

I'm hoping the only reason the dye looks blue is because it's cool. Not because, say, somebody in the factory accidentally put the mixture for "Crazy, Unnatural Slate-Gray" hair color in my "Lightest Cool Brown" bottle.

Okay, my 10 minutes are up. Please excuse me while I rinse out...

...

Whew! I like my new color. It's not blue at all. Here's the best photo I can manage, taken from my computer camera (note the self-cut bangs):

I will not be quitting my day job to go into professional modeling. Or the photography business. However, perhaps I could be a colorist? 

Ladies, if you would like to try dyeing your own hair, here are some tips I've learned over the years.

1. Choose a natural-looking shade very close to your own color. Don't go more than two shades darker or lighter. If you have brown hair and want to go platinum blond, that's a job best left for a professional. Trust me.

2. If you want highlights, it's better to skip those two-step highlighting kits and go to a pro, unless you have infinite patience and unlimited time to individually paint on the highlighter ten hairs at a time. Otherwise you'll end up with broad, stylized stripes that are only flattering to a rare few.

3. Follow the package directions to the letter.

4. If you color a lot, the ends of your hair are probably darker than your roots—not good. Keep things even by putting conditioner on the ends of your hair while it's still dry, then coloring. The conditioner will help keep the ends from absorbing too much pigment.

5. If you hate the oversaturated look your hair has right after coloring, shampoo with your regular shampoo immediately after rinsing out the dye. (Then use the conditioner that comes with the dye after you rinse out the shampoo.) Your hair will come out more natural-looking.

6. A lighter color conceals gray better than a darker one does.

Happy coloring!

Comments

[Yoga Spy]

What's your take on the sulfate debate? Eg, see http://killerstrands.blogspot.com/.

Yoga Spy

[erin]

Maybe it's something related to the blond part--you know how Aveda's Blue Mauva conditioner for blond hair is blue? Something about the blue brings out the blond, I think.