There is a proverb that goes along these lines: ‘when one is trying to be stingy one ends up
spending more money’ and I experienced its profound wisdom the other day, to
the expense of my hair (and my sanity).
I have very dark brown hair and I’ve been having blond
highlights for 4 years now. When the overall effect is too blond, my
hairdresser adds a few dark highlights along the blond ones, so the contrast
can be maintained. I usually visit my hairdresser every 3-4 months but I
decided to skip a visit and attempt a DIY in order to save money (whole head highlighting,
plus the special shampoo to counteract brassiness, plus washing, plus tip can
get extremely expensive). I didn’t plan to do highlights; I only wanted to
lighten my dark grown roots a little bit so they wouldn’t contrast as badly
with the rest of the hair in order to postpone a hairdresser appointment.
I have dyed my hair before (dyed them platinum blond, mind
you, so I am no stranger to home dyeing) and I was pretty confident I could
achieve a passable result. I couldn’t be more wrong.
My first mistake was when I went to the hair supply store; I
asked for an ash blond dye (the shop assistant gave me one from Majirel) and a
developer. He gave me a 6% developer and when I told him that my colourist uses
a stronger one he insisted that there is no need. And because I’m meek and naïve,
I trusted his opinion and got the 6% developer.
The result was catastrophic. I wasn’t expecting ash blond
hair, but I was expecting something approximating yellow at least. I didn’t
take a picture the first time (because as you will read below I ended up dying
my hair 4 times in total), so the picture shown here is after the third attempt,
but there are parts that weren’t dyed successfully so the colours from the first
and second dyes can be seen. My hair turned out a vibrant orange (exhibit 1) and
yes, I should have used the stronger developer.
It’s not unusual for dark hair to turn orange when trying to
achieve a blond result, it has to do with the way the colour changes gradually from the
dye and usually blond can be achieved with a second application (or with bleaching
which is unfortunately very bad for the hair). Thus, I bought another dye (this
time the L’Oreal Preference in ‘Stockholm’, which is a light pearl blond) and
the result was a very light orange (exhibit 2). It wasn’t bad but I wasn’t
pleased. You see, (and here is where the plot thickens) I had a night out coming
up and I wanted to look good, so I decided to have another go.
Since my roots were ‘virgin’ hair as it’s called, and since
they hadn’t become stringy (which is definitive proof of hair degradation) I didn’t
think I was in an immediate danger of it falling off. This time I used a brand
whose name I can’t recall but it was in a slim box that didn’t have square
edges and contained a powder (instead of a colourant) and a developer. And it
wrecked absolute havoc in my hair. It’s not clear from the photo, but it made
the front bits almost white and the bits behind fluorescent orange, though to
be honest that is probably mostly due to my application (exhibit 3). I was a
circus clown. I honestly started laughing when I saw myself in the mirror. My
hair simply didn’t want to cooperate. At this point there was no time to go to
the hairdresser’s as I had to get ready for the aforementioned night out. I
rushed to the supermarket and grabbed a brown dye (it was the Garnier Olia in ‘Brown’
which thankfully doesn’t contain ammonia) and slapped it on.
The result: the blorange was gone but my hair turned out
accidentally ombre: dark at the top and lighter everywhere else. I’m going to
wait for at least a month (during which I’ll have to do some serious
conditioning) and then I’ll go to my hairdresser and see if we can add some
highlights in there and salvage the whole mess.
So in the I learned some valuable lessons: if a DIY project doesn’t
work after the second attempt,
consult a professional because although it’s more costly, you’ll save time and
the result will be worth it. Also, never put a night out on a pedestal no
matter how great it promises to be, because expectations > reality almost
always, and more importantly, the colour of the hair won’t make much difference
in the end!
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