You Can't Always Get What You Want...Misadventures In Hair Dye

By Monday, June 28, 2010 ,

There is a lesson in life that I'm sure we have all dealt with at some point or another, you can't always get what you want. Most recently this lesson has been applied to me and my attempts at dying my hair.


I've been dying my hair on and off since I was 10 years of age. For the last 10 years it has mainly been shades of darker mahogany red or darker browns to hide my hair's natural ash tones that I dislike. Earlier this year I decided to try a lighter shade of red (chestnut red to be exact), I really liked it a lot and wanted to continue using it.

Some how I purchased the wrong shade of hair dye this time and ended up with a more burgundy shade (DARK purpley red tones), I could have easily lived with it in the fall and not had any issue with it other than it just wasn't what I had been hoping for, but since it is the summer I really wanted the lighter red chestnut shade I had in the spring.


I learned of a new product called Colour Oops that removes any trace of old hair colour from your hair, I spend all night using the stuff (apply, wait 20 minutes, wash out for 20 minutes and then another 5, then do a hair mask for 20 minutes) and got decent results. I then re-dyed with what I was sure was the correct chestnut colour, only to end up with the EXACT same burgundy shade. It actually is even be darker than before! Darker, sigh, that's not a light summery shade.


I'm not quite sure what I did wrong, it might still be the wrong shade of chestnut, but why would it go burgundy again? It might be too much burgundy still stuck in my hair strands after the stripping process, I just don't know.


Sigh. Proving no matter how hard I try right now, I'm not going to get what I want. So, I'm giving up, leaving it the way it is.


The funny thing is how things with your clothes and makeup change when your colour changes like this. I will most likely be wearing less greens, golds, bronzes and corals and more purples, pinks, and browns. Filling in my brows is also a new challenge, I'm considering getting it tinted much darker at the salon.
What I wanted on the left (freshly dyed the night before), right the second attempt at dying it in a week (says it is dark chestnut, but is a dark burgundy/purple red that looks black from a distance) .

0 comments