I Can’t Blog Right Now, I’m Washing My Hair
Hair is a difficult subject for me, full of contradictions.
Having curly hair, I am constantly on a quest for someone who “gets” it. But the frugal girl in me can’t stand the idea of a $100 hair cut. Throughout the years I have pinged back and forth between these extremes. One time I drove over an hour to get my hair cut by a Ouidad curl specialist. I paid through the nose only to have KK tell me to immediately shower and restyle it myself. (And you said that in love KK, and I appreciate you for that.)
While I relish the idea of someone who really understands my hair and can lovingly work with each curl to get the most from it, the truth of the matter is that all three times I’ve splurged on a super pricey curl specialist no one can tell the difference. And when you really get down to it, the good thing about having long curly hair is that it’s pretty forgiving. Are my ends uneven? You’ll never know whether it’s the cut or if my curls are just being funky for the day.
So I tried out a new hairdresser this weekend. My neighbor K has beautiful curly hair, and she gets it cut at a place with reasonable prices. I thought I’d check her stylist out. I told the woman (T) that I was very happy with my length so I just wanted a slight trim and color.
T: “What do you want to do with your color?”
Me: “Nothing drastic. I just want to cover the grey and get rid of the brassiness at the ends.”
This is what I ended up with:
Don't I look like a mannequin with my hand on my hip?
Can’t see it well enough? Fine, here’s a close up:
Notice how my hair and my navy shirt are almost the same color?
I know some of you are going to point out that it is hard to see my hair because I’m wearing a hat. But must I point out the obvious? I’m wearing a hat because my hair looks terrible!
And perhaps some of the more observant of you will note that my hair is about the same color as it was when I went to San Diego with KK in March. What you don’t know is that right before that trip the frugal girl in me decided to try Nice-n-Easy for the first time. Let’s just say that it wasn’t that nice-n-easy. I gave Elvira a run for her money. But I didn’t kvetch about it at the time because I kind of figured I got what I paid for. This time I paid a professional. So I’m kvetching. And shampooing. My nice friends at Google recommend that I wash my hair with Head and Shoulders, Prell or Johnson’s Baby Shampoo to strip the color out.
I’ve shampooed my hair four times in the last 36 hours. It’s a little better, but not much.
Morticia called. She wants the number for my colorist.
Anyone got some Prell I can borrow?
all things juice 
oh no. poor you. this story reminds me of the time i colored my own hair aubergine (because i liked how it looked on the girl on the box). yeah, aubergine is eggplant. who really wants purple hair? i tried to strip it out with lots of shampooing. not much helped. i had to be patient and trim it more often trying to get rid of it. mind you, mine was a wash in / wash out not a permanent. UGH. sorry for your troubles, girlfriend … boo hoo.
p.s. i’m with you, i’ve paid $100 to have my baby-fine, poker-straight hair trimmed and it’s never looked any better than my favorite stylist at the local fantastic sam’s. and she only charges $17!
Oh, girlfriend, I feel your (curly-haired) pain. I know they used to say that the only difference between a good haircut and a bad one is two weeks, but I don’t know how that applies to color. Good luck!
There’s nothing worse than a bad dye job (or hair cut)!
Can you go back and get them to fix it? (free of charge, of course) I’ve definitely done that when I’ve been unhappy – like the time I got a dye job that didn’t cover up my, ahem, roots (I just call them roots. Technically some strands are white. Or silver. But NOT gray!!! Gray is for grandmas and battships and dreary days!).
Also, how is the world is Johnson’s BABY Shampoo supposed to strip color? I mean, I thought that was the ultra gentle “no more tears” stuff? To use on delicate little baby heads?
Prell, I can understand. Remember that 80’s movie The Manhattan Project where they used Prell to replace the plutonium? (Miranda from SITC was in it) 🙂
You know what else is heck on hair color? Ivory soap. Or you could back and have her put color remover on it since she mixed the color poorly.
As a curly-headed girl, I feel the pain. I have had several cheap cuts back in my younger days. Like Bo-Rics and those chains: Can’t do ’em. I’ve had too many newbies pull my bangs, chop them off below the eyebrow and then actually express surprise that my bangs were up to my hairline. I don’t pay a lot, though. My current hairdresser charges $22 and was interviewed first. She was totally into it. I visited three salons and let two of them trim my hair.
I’ve had people who swore up and down that a razor was perfect for curls. Uh huh. And monkeys may … I mean … well, just keep your razor to yourself. Anyway, there are certain things a hairdresser should know about curly hair and its challenges.
Honestly, I’ll bet it doesn’t look that bad on you, but if you are really unhappy with it, you should call the hairdresser back and give her the opportunity to make it right. I’ll bet she would be more than happy to correct her mistake.
You all will be happy to hear I’m going back today at 4:20pm. Hooray!
Update on the hair re-do, please! Post-worthy stuff!
Oh, I’m not sure if there is a whole post in the do-over. It’s no longer that heinous blue black color, but it’s still a dark brown. At least now it has some warmer tones in it. My stylist described it as Hershey’s chocolate bar brown. I think it’s just a tad darker than that.
But she was very cool about it, didn’t charge me a thing and we discussed ways to make it a little lighter next time. I’ll go back and give her another shot.
i hate to even pay $20 and get it cut at the local supercuts because curly hair is so forgiving.
you should go back to the hair place and ask the lady to fix it. most good salons will redo for you…
that or just tell people you are going through a goth phase. 😀