Sunday 4 September 2016

I'm dying!! (my hair)

In preparation for fall, I need to deal with my roots, not my plants, my hair. Today was hair dying day. Once upon a time, I would pay a lovely person to do this for me. That person would also add low lights (lites??) and high lights and I would sit with a stack of magazines and a cup of coffee and all was right with the world. Then I would pay the lovely person well over $100. That was without a blow out because I was just getting into my vehicle and driving home. I could do that with a damp head.

I have played around with dying my own hair over the years. It started back in highschool and university days when I would put a semi-permanent colour on my hair to get a bit of a strawberry blonde look. I also would comb lemon juice into the front of my hair and sit out in the sun so I would get high lights framing my face. However, those were also the days of perms. Does anyone even get a perm anymore? I had long hair and would get a spiral perm! God I loved those perms. I was an 80's girl. I would hang my head upside down and put mousse in my hair, stick the diffuser on the end of my blowdryer and scrunch for all I was worth. I also got the high lights where you wore a little holey cap and someone used a crochet hook looking device to pull strands of hair through the holes and apply the brain searing chemicals to create a "natural" sun kissed look. Highschool was literally spent in a haze of mousse, gel, and hairspray. Shoulder pads and big earrings also played a part in the look. I would tease my bangs. If the bangs wouldn't stay up high, I would at least pop my collar up to achieve an upward appearance.

Now I pay about $13.00 for a box of hair colour and that does me for about two months. (My hair does grow quickly and I should probably do it more often, but life gets busy). Here are some of the preparations:


I let my husband know that I was doing my hair. That means, I cannot be contacted, I am unavailable, do not disturb. Hair dying and canning are the two times that you need to just leave me alone. However, husbands, like children seem to need you the most when you are your busiest. As I was squeezing the contents of the bottle along my roots, I hear my husband call from the kitchen, "The computer did that thing again!"


Seriously?? How do you expect me to be gloriously beautiful if you disturb the process? Yes, that's a towel clamped around my neck. It's my hair dying towel. It is relegated to this job only, as various stains can attest.

As if by magic, I emerge about 45 minutes later, freshly washed and coifed, practically stunning.


Have a look at those roots!! That one area appears dark, but I think it's a shadow of my phone. It actually isn't dark. And, how 'bout those picture taking skills?!?! That's not my arm in the shot.


Nor, is that my finger in the corner of that shot.

So... I ask you... do you go to the hair dresser to have your colour done? Are you simply such a spring chicken that you don't require a dye job? Or are you one of the brave (and cheap!) ones who dyes her own hair. Do you even (sharp intake of breath) do your own highlights?? Some day I'll work up the nerve.

17 comments:

  1. Well my lovely, it's a kinda co incidence that I've just done the opposite to you! I'm giving up my home dying ( £4.99 a box ) and putting myself in the hands of the professionals!

    I've had dark hair as long as i recall. I too put lemon juice on my fringe, Sun in on my fringe, coloured my fringe in with red marker pen. I had my beautiful bum length hair chopped off at 13 and permed so I could look sexy and sultry like Nena - she of 99 red balloons.
    I looked like Kevin Keegan.

    Anyway I can't cope with my WHITE roots so I'm going professionally lighter until that day I can STOP!
    My mum reckons no one has seen my real hair colour for 3 decades!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had to look up who Kevin Keegan is. Then I laughed. I totally know 99 red balloons! You are far more of a hair risk taker than I am (red marker?) -Jenn

      Delete
  2. I finally threw in the towel and gave up about 12 years ago. My sister has the most beautiful snow white hair and I want to be like her!

    ReplyDelete
  3. But that said, today my hair has once again taken on some of it's old red "highlights". We were staining the underside of the deck "redwood" and some of it made it down onto my head, down my neck, down my shirt....you know how that goes, LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HAHAHA...I'm laughing because I was totally an 80s girl like you once upon a time. Oh, the memories... I used to also have my hair done professionally, paying about 100 bucks a shot. But not anymore. Now I dye my hair by myself, whenever I do, which isn't very often. But I'm thinking of giving it a bit of a red tint for the fall. We shall see.

    "How do you expect me to be gloriously beautiful if you disturb the process?" BAHAHAHA I love that comment. I know, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The 80's! I miss those big hair days! I also got spiral perms. My hair was a force beyond me. It was huge, huge, huge.

    I also buy the do it yourself colour. It is just too damned expensive to go to a salon. At over $100.00 I obviously chose the wrong line of work. The reason I haven't coloured lately is I have a rotator cuff injury. I am afraid of not being able to finish what I start. Not a good look.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's too bad about your rotator cuff. I hope you can get some physio or something for that. If I lived close, I would help colour your hair! -Jenn

      Delete
  6. I am notoriously cheap. I have always dyed my own hair. I used to get one haircut a year, but now thanks to Pinterest, I've learned to cut my own hair. I haven't been to a salon in the years! I think your hair turned out great.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Funnily enough this Wednesday is my colour day - I admit to going to the hairdresser!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very nice color! I've been coloring my hair myself on and off for years. Usually it's to just play around with colors. I don't have a problem with my graying hair though, and someday I think I'll just let it all grow in naturally. Like Bonnie K above, I always cut my own hair, but since I keep my hair one length, there isn't much learning involved.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You are a brave soul.....I have colored my hair since high school...we used to "frost" our hair in shades of blonde! Honey, Loreal is a good friend of mine! Lovely color by the way! What a fun post!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just got home from getting my hair coloured. I used to dye my own hair but it ended up being 3 or 4 different shades because I didn't comb it through properly. I miss my big 80's permed hair. We should bring the trend back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Permed hair might just come around again, like a "retro" thing. -Jenn

      Delete
  11. I started dyeing my hair when I was about 15... Nice & Easy #100... Natural pale blonde!
    I am ahead of you Jenn...I was born in 1950...
    I also used to perm my own hair! Had a spiral curling iron...loved that look!
    Then I went to short hair, when I was about 45.... And started streaking myself!
    Did that for many years....finally found a neighbour to do it...$20 for a cut...$40 for hi lites and low lites! That came to an abrupt end last December, when she fried my hair! A lot has fallen out...it looks pretty sad...so....I found another hairdresser, for the cuts....but I am still doing my own colour! I have a lot of grey, and I need some low lites.....so.....next week, my daughter is taking me to her gal....for a cut and colour! She works out of her home, and does a fab job on my daughters hair...so....wish me luck...next Wednesday.....
    Sorry for the long story....your hair is so nice and thick...you are lucky!
    Enjoy your evening....
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

    ps.....the praying mantis is fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always think your hair looks great! It's so funny, you commenting on my hair being "nice and thick". I would give anything to be able to blow dry my hair and have it just hang nice and straight. It is crazy frizzy and wild. You permed your own hair?? You are one brave woman! -Jenn

      Delete