I've been dying my hair an array of colors with crazy haircuts for the last decade of my life. Constantly from one color/design to another, it has simply become a part of who I am. It became my identifier in every way. My hair made it easy for my friends to spot me in a crowd. It drew people to me, and served as a great talking point. I reveled in the stares. Above all else I loved proving the stereotypes that go along with crazy hair wrong. Having a blue and red mohawk, and proving to (especially) the elderly that I am helpful, generous, and kind was incredibly satisfying. Surprise, not everyone with punky hair believes in anarchy and destruction!
Anyway, my point in going into all this is that I made a massive decision to dye my hair back to my natural color. Why you ask? Because dying and bleaching my hair every month is expensive. Even though I'm the one doing it, it adds up. Not only that but moving back to Indiana and then Australia, it will make my job hunt that much easier if I'm not wearing a wig or have a brightly color "do" that makes me look like a parrot trying to find a mate (as much fun as that may be). Plus, do you know how much maintenance having red hair is? Dear lord. Shit is bananas. Not just having to bleach and dye it monthly, but also making sure not to use light colored towels....ever. Must make sure to warn any friends that if I take a shower in their tub it will probably look like I just murdered someone (yes, every time I shampoo it is bright pink/red everywhere which also dyes the tub itself). And getting my hair wet when in I'm in the pool? Forget it. Wearing a white/light shirt if I am bound to dance and sweat? Psh. Pink instantly. So no, I do not want to have to deal with that kind of maintenance and worry while I am abroad.
While it all logically made sense, that didn't stop me from freaking the fuck out leading up to it. So without further ado! I will post the process of what Aveda did to my hair, simply because I found it utterly fascinating.
What we started off with, gorgeous right? I miss the red already!
So first they did a hair detox, which was pretty interesting. Since my natural hair (which you can see in my roots & eyebrows) has absolutely zero red tones in it, they had to get out as much red as possible so that it wouldn't give the black they put on top red undertones. This was the result! By FAR better than any of expected. They basically used bleach, shampoo, and a touch of developer to strip out my red dye without actually "bleaching" my hair.
Then they put on this heinous filler dye. The point is to even out my hair first before putting on the actual dye, so that when it goes on it doesn't take super differently to different parts of my hair. For example, the dye would take different to my roots (natural hair), compared to the yellow/bleached top of my head or the coppery/orange tips of my hair. So the filler dye filled in. You can't tell in this picture but the dye looked like mud. Not pretty. (For the record this is my I'm-not-sure-if-I'm-doing-the-right-thing-and-trying-not-to-freak-out face.)
Then they put on the actual dye. They purposely made it a half step darker than my natural hair because even though it's permanent hair dye, it will still fade a little bit. So they made it a little darker than my natural hair so that when it fades it will (hopefully) blend in perfectly. After the dye we did a deep conditioning treatment because my hair needed it so freaking bad.
The lady was like, "Well there's no going back to your red even if you wanted to. If you do, it will turn to MUSH." Made me laugh, because it is oh so true.
All in all the damage was $92 plus $20 for tip. It was so cheap because I went to the Aveda school, so it was technically a student working on my hair (since my case was so very very special and involved, the instructor actually did most of it and practically held her hand the whole time). The whole process took five hours. Five. Hours. So I'm looking forward to never doing that again. But even though it cost me a little over a hundred bucks, it was worth it. I would have spent that in the next three months on dye and bleach anyway.
It's still weird to me. And Im getting used to it slowly. It's a little too dark for my taste, I've never cared for the solid black look, but I'm trusting that it will indeed fade to my natural color, not that I have much of a choice anyway. As you may have noticed I also decided to start parting it on the other side of my head so as to cover the shaved part, which I'm growing out. I find it particularly amusing because even though half my head is shaved it still can look like I have a full head of hair just because I have so much it.
And just to reiterate:
If this doesn't prove I'm serious about traveling, nothing ever will.
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