Hair We Go Again

Image courtesy of www.123rf.com

Image courtesy of www.123rf.com

I love the funky hair colors that so many people carry off so well and carried a secret desire to become one of them for some time. I even scoured Pinterest and other sites for ideas. It quickly became apparent that I seem to have two strikes working against me.

Strike One: Most of the examples of colorful hair are on blonds or brunettes. I don’t think I have found a single example of a natural redhead rocking a multi-colored look. Galaxy hair? Brunettes. Oil slick hair? Brunettes. Peekaboo hair? Blonds. Where are the redheads? Surely I’m not the only one that loves the cool colors.

Strike Two: I have short hair. Most of the short hairstyles with fun colors are an all-over color and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go that extreme.

Finally, in February 2015, I decided to take the plunge. I told my stylist to book an appointment – we were going to add some blue and purple to my strawberry blond locks. After assuring her that I wouldn’t get in trouble at work, we were a go. Then, my father passed away; the appointment that I had scheduled would be the day of his funeral. I knew that I wanted to proceed with my plans but also knew that the appointment needed to be rescheduled. What to do? Postpone the appointment that I had been looking forward to with great excitement or try to reschedule it to before the funeral? After a relatively short internal debate, I decided to try and get it done before the funeral. My stylist was able to move my appointment up a day and, without telling anyone but my husband what I was planning to do, I “disappeared” for a few hours to have my hair done. To be honest, it was a much needed respite. After being surrounded by people for several days, this introvert needed a chance to get away and recharge a bit. Of course, by the time I got home, my husband had squealed on me and one of my sisters was waiting for me when I arrived. So, I rocked the look in the picture below to my father’s funeral. It caused a few raised eyebrows, but not nearly as many as I had expected.

blue-and-purple

When I had the color added, I asked the hairdresser how long it would last. She estimated that it would last a month, maybe six weeks if I babied it. The “babying” stage only lasted a couple of days. However, it took a full three months for the color to fade completely. My day job is IT customer support so I deal with a lot of people face-to-face on a daily basis. A fair number of people asked me about my hair and why I had decided to add the color. I told them the same thing that I told everyone at the funeral – I needed something to make me smile. A few people had their own ideas as to why I had it done. My favorites were:

 Did you have that done for Mardi Gras?

I thought you must have done it for Easter.

I figured it was a Gay Pride thing.

Once the colors faded, people began asking when I planned to have something done again. I didn’t know. I knew it would happen, I just didn’t know when. Then, in December 2016, the time was suddenly right. (That’s how I roll. I may delay a decision but, once it’s made, it’s made.) I booked the appointment to have some as yet determined color added to my hair and began scanning Pinterest for ideas again. I decided to go with an all over color. When I contacted my stylist she said “Are you sure? That means that we have to bleach all of your hair.” I told her that I understood and that I wanted to go with an all-over gray/silver with maroon accents. When the big day arrived, she decided to put some orange over the burgundy. While the silver was lighter than I expected, I really liked the overall look.

maroon-hair

Sadly, my happiness didn’t last. Both the maroon and silver faded within the first couple of days, leaving me with an overall color that was just this side of platinum blond with bright orange bangs. It was not a combination that I was happy with. After the holidays, I went back to my hairdresser to get things repaired. I told the stylist that I didn’t want to re-add the red and requested that she just strip the orange so I’d just be blond. Well, while most of the orange cooperated, the brightest streak did not; not even bleaching removed it, much to my hairdressers surprise. She then had to put some toner on my hair to even out the colors between the parts that had been bleached first and the newly bleach section. Much to my delight, the toner gave me more of the grayish silver color that I had wanted in the first place. The remaining orange has now lightened significantly and even though the silver has lightened as well, I still really like it. I’m not sure how long I will keep it this way before I let my natural red grow back in. I’m guessing that I will be a ginger again within six months or so.

However, there is a downside to this gorgeous silver color – now people just think I have silver hair because I’m old, and not because I’m cool LOL. Oh well, I know the truth and now, so do you! ;-)

silver-hair

Since I’m terrible at selfies, I may as well make goofy faces!

What about you? Have you played with adding any unusual colors to your hair?

4 comments

  1. Lydia says:

    I loved this post!

    I dyed my hair red once. It was a fun experiment, but I don’t think I’ll do it again. My hair is naturally bit dry already, and the dye only made it more dry and prone to breakage.

    I am jealous of people who can dye their hair many different colours without damaging it, though! That is very cool.

    • Isabella Norse says:

      Thanks!

      I suspect that this experience marks the end of my experiments with color. Like you, my hair is naturally a bit dry and somewhat coarse. All of the bleaching has made it even more so. Fortunately, between my hair being so short and growing so fast, any damage will be short-lived. I’m just a very low maintenance person and keeping this color is going to be very high maintenance.

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