Confessions of a Hair Dye Virgin – Why I Never Did It Until Now

Someone once told me that “Once you start dying your hair, you can never go back.” I don’t remember exactly who spoke those words to me, but that statement constantly ran through my mind as I sat anxiously in my chair waiting for the dye to set in―I truly did not understand why people were so obsessed with dying their hair.

Fast forward a couple of hours later, once I saw my freshly dyed hair in the mirror, I began to fully understand why I was warned with that statement when I made the decision to lose my “hair dye virginity” last summer. 

Why I Never Did It Until Now 

There’s a couple of reasons why it took me so long to dye my hair. One of these reasons being is that I love my black hair. My black hair makes up a huge part of my identity, and I didn’t want to do anything that could change it. Even most of my peers would agree as well. Looking back on my childhood, people were obsessed with my hair—my classmates would constantly compliment my hair and play with it. 

It was from that point of time where I started to realize that my hair was an important part of me, and because of this, I never really had a strong interest in dying my hair.

Another reason why I never wanted to dye my hair was simply because I was scared to do it. I’ve seen the damage hair dye can do to people’s hair, and I got worried that it would damage my hair a lot. I didn’t know how well my hair would react to chemicals and didn’t want to take the risk. However, after learning more about the process with my first hair dye experience, I now know dye doesn’t damage your hair that much unless you do it all the time.

Beyond these reasons, I think the biggest thing that held me back from dying my hair was my anxiety with hair salons. There are some long stories behind this, but I experienced a lot of instances in the past where I was unhappy with the way my hair turned out, which led me to have some serious trust issues with people styling my hair.

My Experience 

So why did I finally make the decision to dye my hair? Truth is, I just wanted something new and different in my life (plus, I had a little push from my friend). Given all my previous hesitations with dying my hair, I decided to play it safe the first time around.

Instead of getting a full-blown hair transformation, I opted for mini highlights with a dark, warm brown color. Turns out mini highlights aren’t very common (couldn’t find this anywhere on the Internet when I researched it), but this process focuses on dying the hair that lays around the crown of your head. This look is subtle, but these types of highlights help frame your face using front hairpieces. 

I definitely played it too safe for my first time, and this became obvious to me when not a lot of people noticed my new hair after I got it done. However, despite the subtle look, I still loved how my hair turned out because it gave me a nice change and it felt so liberating when I conquered my fear towards it. This definitely won’t be the last time I’m dying my hair, but next time I’m going all out with a bolder color and a full-on balayage.

So there you have it. It took me 20 years but I finally did it. And like that person once told me, I’m never going back.

  

• hair
• hair dye
• highlights