I am not a natural beautician. For starters, I can’t even apply eyeliner correctly, so quite why, over the years, I decided that although I know very little about hair, products and cosmetics, I would be able to dye my own hair is quite beyond me.
My first dying experiment was when I was at the tender age of twelve. Bored of my own brown hair, I decided to spruce it up with a bit of red. After a few conversations trying to persuade my mother that this was a necessary course of action, I toddled off to Superdrug with my weekly pocket money (sounding like I’m a fictional child now) and bought a dye I had seen advertised which claimed to last six to eight washes. As I would learn, hair dye will always outlive six to eight washes on my hair. The experiment was what I considered a success, I received a few compliments (along with the odd “your mother let you dye your hair!?”) and although the hint of red seemed to never actually leave my hair, this gave me the confidence to believe that I was in fact a hair-dye genius in the making.
Five years later, I was on the quest for a new hair colour once more. Despite having witnessed the less than desired outcome Sun-In can have on hair, I was determined that, being the hair-dye genius I had proclaimed myself to be, I would be different from the rest, the exception to the rule. I applied one coat, liberally spraying the product over my hair and blasting my hair with heat, but was disappointed to see little to no result. Determined, I applied more, and more. Still no noticeable change. I decided to have a walk around in the sun but was still disappointed and decided to spray my hair one last time before going to bed. The next morning, however, I found myself staring at my carrot-topped reflection in vague horror. This was somewhat remedied with a dark red dye which initially turned my hair almost purple, but the orange still shone through whenever it caught a hint of light. Lesson learnt #1 – If you have dark hair, Sun-In will make it ginger.
Clearly, bleach and I did not get on. As my hair grew out and I was left with half brown/half red hair, I took the opposite route and used a ‘semi-permanent’ black dye (cue vampirical images – jet black hair against very pale skin can look beautiful, or can leave you, as in my case, looking like a witch). Fortunately, this did fade a little and got me roughly back to my natural colour, which in turn made me reach for the dye once more. Lesson learnt #2 – Head and Shoulders shampoo helps wash out unwanted colour (I was also told this recently when advised to steer clear of it after just having my hair dyed). Oh, and best to dye a strip of your hair first to see if you actually want your hair that colour in the end!
This time it was bleach all the way. I was going blonde. I could avoid the extortionate salon prices
and get dazzling blonde hair on my own. Was I scared of using the extra strong pre-lightener? Of course not. I was a pro, after all. Drying my hair in the mirror after waiting forty minutes (thirty minutes was recommended) to wash out the bleach, I saw a fate worse than the copper highlights of Sun-In. My hair was varying shades of yellow and orange. I looked, as my mother affectionately referred to it, like a sunset. Going to the pub later that evening, I endured jabs left, right and centre. I applied more bleach the next day, hoping it would make it lighter, but instead just made it brighter. Lesson learnt #3 – Unless you really are a pro and know your stuff, bleach is not your friend.
I tried to dye it dark red, as I had done in the Sun-In incident, but this just made it a different kind of ginger. By this time, I had run out of money to buy more dye and had to face returning to school as an orange (my mum claimed it would be ‘character building’ – nothing quite prepared me for the endless teasing that would ensue). This was finally remedied by copious amounts of brown hair dye, which eventually turned my hair black. Lesson learnt # 4 – you need to be careful when choosing which shade you dye your hair, and if in doubt, go for the lighter colour as this can always be dyed darker later.
I hope with this information in hand you do not make the same multitude of mistakes as I have, and, if you’re about to reach for the bleach, I issue you this warning; it will dry your hair out, so make sure to condition your hair thoroughly!