I have been so excited about going to get my hair done this weekend. SO EXCITED. I have no problem going the boxed color route, but there is something very luxurious about having a professional dig in. My hair, the hair that is underneath the color, is (OH WOW I AM GOING THERE) white. Not grey. Not brown. My hair is growing white.
You have met my Mother so this white hair business should come as no surprise. I just asked her when her hair went white and she says, “in high school”. That my hair is now coming in as this pale, pale silver so late in the game is a wee bit of a victory. Right?
I honestly can’t wait until I let my hair just BE in all its snowy glory, but I am not ready. Nope. Not yet. I want it red.
So as my hair has grown in lighter and lighter the boxed kits have churned out results that are lighter and lighter and the next thing you know my head of hair is sort of an ombre situation. I wanted the dark auburn color at the bottom of my hair to match the now light copper-red happening at the roots.
I scoured the internet for photos to bring in to show the hair colorist. (I bet they hate when people do that.) But how else does one convey, “THIS! This is the color I want!!” without a photo to gesture towards?
These are the three celebrity red heads that I brought in. They are all very similar but the one thing they have is that they are a lighter red instead of a darker red. I showed the photo, we talked about highlights, and then we were off. Mounds of silver foils flew by, potent smelling paste was brushed on, I sat in a chair with a timer ticking next to me, and then everything was washed.
You guys know I have super thick hair, right? I have so much hair that I sometimes get a headache if I wear it down. There have been times where a person at a salon will finish a trim and then pull out a hair dryer and I just sort of chuckle and begin the countdown. It usually happens around the 5 minute mark and it usually begins with, “oh! Look at your curls! Let me show you how to style your hair to accentuate the curls!”
Because it only takes five minutes to realize that my hair EASILY takes 2 hours to blow dry.
This is why when I left the salon Saturday it was with mostly damp hair with mousse tousled in. I had no real idea what the color was. As my hair air-dried I was still side tracked by whatever the mousse was doing. I figured after a shower on Sunday I would have a true sense for the majesty of my hair.
When I saw it I tweeted:
I’m not entirely sure I like my new hair color.
— Dresden (@DresdenPlaid) July 15, 2012
I am still on the fence.
Mom says, “you look beautiful”, but they are programmed to say stuff like that. I just see, well, I see that it is not what I wanted. So even if it DOES look ok I just see fail.
Meh. There are larger issues in the world and I won’t spend more energy on having a feeling about my hair. But here it is:
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
I love it (however I may be partial)! Rock out some John Frida red glaze to help hold the color. I have natural redhair, however the stylist gave you a pretty realistic red and that is hard to do!
It is a nice red. It just isn’t quite THE red that I was aiming for. It is growing on me. (ha!)
It is pretty! However, I totally get what you mean. I had an eerily similar experience in November. It’s nice for others to like it, an it doesn’t look ‘bad,’ but it is not what I wanted.
I like it, it looks very natural! And it will probably fade down to Emma Stone.
It’s beautiful. You should trust Lolly by now!
I naturally have the color you want and my stylist refuses to try to cover my white because he can’t match it…
I love it, D! Though, I do know what it feels like to walk in knowing clearly what you want, and then you walk out looking like Dora the Explorer, which is what happened to the last time I went to get my hair professionally cut.
It is gorgeous and incredibly flattering! I was bottle red for years and it’s so hard to get a tone that looks natural. I think you’re really pulling it off.
WOW….Dude I TOTALLY love it….You look so glamorous. Keep for sure!
I like it! I love doing my hair red too but I’m sort of playing with the idea of doing something crazy and dramatic. Maybe when I’m off work for a while.
I like it too, not that that’s the point.
It looks great! I love it!
According to my dad, my hair was supposed to go gray at 21. I made it to 25. And it’s really gone very slowly. It’s not colored and you can see gray in it, but overall, I am sticking my tongue out at my genes.
It may not be what you wanted, but I think it still looks great.
I got my first 2 white hairs at 13. The stylist cut them out, and they haven’t been back since. I’m guessing that they may start sprouting again in the next few years, once the twins are born and mobile. I’ve never colored my hair (not even highlights), so it’ll be a whole new experience for me.
This is my first time here, came through BlogHer Ads on a trackback, and I have to say it may not be what you were looking for, but that is GORGEOUS. It’s a good, natural color on you. I know, not what you want to hear. But it is beautiful, and I myself with my mousy brown hair am quite jealous.
I think you look fabulous! Love the hair colour.
I know it’s not what you had in mind, but it’s a very natural shade of red–matches the redheads in my family exactly. Your examples one and three aren’t very natural looking, although pretty. Does your stylist have a natural fixation? Mine does. He will only do Color that looks natural.
PS. I totally thought this was going to be a period post!
Your hair looks very pretty.
I like it! I like the highlights, too, you looked like summer gave you a BIG KISS!!!
I think it’s gorgeous; the color looks more natural than Christina Hendricks’ (that’s #3, right?).
I think it’s a beautiful color.
Now, I must hate you. I love your hair. I have such fine, thin hair, it takes 2 minutes max to dry it. That’s of I go all fancy and use a brush. Otherwise, 30 seconds of tossing around with my fingers is all it needs. I don’t color because it easily gets damaged and broken. Sigh…
Love it! And love that you treated yourself to getting it done professionally. You deserve it! Mwah!
Dude, the color rocks!!
I dig it. Almost as much as your rock star glasses.
if I were a colorist, I think I would prefer some pics to someone trying to describe to me what they wanted in “kind of” “sort of” “you know like….” terms. Visuals are good, even if you can’t get exactly there.