Friday, July 05, 2013

Do or Dye

I have just coloured my hair. I have managed to get splotches of dye on the wall and on my hands and arms as usual, and I don't like the resulting colour of my hair. I don't know if I picked up the wrong box (I couldn't remember what I usually have) or if the formulation has changed but I think it's too dark, and looks flat. I am so fed up with colouring it.

I started going grey in my early twenties, and now, at 45, I believe I am considerably grey, underneath all the layers of dye. I am so grey now it is difficult to cover it all, and last time I paid huge sums of money for the hairdresser to do it, she did a worse job than me. I've been colouring my hair so long I can barely remember my natural shade. I do it every four weeks, and for ten days or so I am happy with it, then the white stripe down my parting appears and gets wider until I colour it again. I hate that and would rather be grey than look like a badger for three weeks out of every four. What's the point? I'm not prepared to colour it every ten days and it's not as if I'm fooling anyone, when the whole world can see the badger stripe more often than not.

I wish I could wave my magic wand and get rid of the hair colour overnight, but I know it's likely to take a year or so to grow it out, and how to deal with the ever-widening white stripe during the process? I have had enough of the mess I always make in the bathroom (and on my skin!), the cost of having it done at the hairdresser, the ever present stripe, the nasty chemicals, not liking the result. I've.  Had. Enough.

I just have to come up with a strategy to see me through the process of growing out the dye. I could cut my hair short, to make the process quicker....I hate my hair short, but it's a possibility. I could wear headbands and hats! That might be the route I go down, I think. Watch this space. 

2 comments:

  1. I have only dyed my hair once (blue! in high school!), but I remember the smell and mess. Reminds me of the mess I make when I dye fabric, and I can never get the dye to take evenly there either. Even if you don't like it, the phrase badger stripe is adorable. Here is one scary alternative. I once dyed a friend's hair blue, but we started with bleaching it. This made the blue dye show up exactly as it was on the box. I think it was a bleach kit we got from a beauty supply shop, nothing fancy. Of course, more chemicals and smell! But maybe it will last longer? Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do!

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  2. My son had blue hair for a while, and used to bleach it first. The blue used to fade quite quickly though, and then he would go through various shades of green and back to bleached blonde. Sometimes he had blue, green and blonde all going at the same time and he looked a bit like some kind of 6 foot three exotic parrot :)

    Maybe I'll grow out my grey, and then dye it pink or violet!

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