It has been brought to my attention (via you steel-trap bitches on Twitter) that I never showed you my new hair color. And since I'm apparently on borrowed time before it disappears completely, I owe you pics! So I snapped this one on my way out the door this morning:
Why yes, I did don pinkish earrings and stood right in front of our orangey fence for full clash-a-bility! I would re-take, but I'm afraid I will get into perfectionist-land if I start playing Glamourshots for this post. You get what you get, and you don't get upset, even if your eyes bleed.
...by the way, have you ever let a friend look at your camera right after a embarking on a long session of "time for a new profile picture" photoshoot? And then they're flipping through, la-di-la, until they come to 250 straight pics of your face, and you have to be all, "I'm not obsessed with myself, I swear! It's for LinkedIn! I just want to present myself in my best possible light?"
No, this hasn't happened to you? Oh. Me neither! HAHA! Moving on.
The details:
What I said to Stephen the Stylist:"I want it red, but not like, crazy, you know? Normal red. Like it could have grown out of my head. A red known to nature. Not blonde-with-a-little-strawberry, not brown-with-a-little auburn. Red. Reddish? I don't know. I'm scared."
Stephen the Stylist's Interpretation: "So, you don't want to look like an angry teenager sticking it to her parents. And you don't want it to look like a mistake. Irish lassie. Confident copper."
How it went down: 5+ hours at the salon. Single-process, wash, cut, blow-dry, (very scary at this point, omigod), a second single-process, toner, wash, blow-dry. $150 out the door.
Number of hours I spent crying afterward: Roughly 12. Tips for you who want to dye your hair: you might think it's a great idea to to it over that weekend when your spouse and all your friends happen to be out of town, because you'll be bored, right? Do NOT do this. Without any friends to tell you it looks good, you will stare in the mirror for two days, drink way too much wine, and cry.
Eyebrow situation: My brows were a dirty blonde - much like the actual, unhighlighted color of my hair - and didn't look quite right with the red. So I bough an at-home facial bleaching kit and bleached them up just a tad (left the product on my brows for about 4 minutes). The resulting color was a strawberry blond that looks fine untouched - for work and nighttime I lightly brush them with cream taupe eyeshadow for definition/a hint of darkness
The reaction: Mostly positive. Although I will tell you, I get a real kick out of the people who tell me point-blank that they don't like it. Like my mom! And my boss! It's refreshing, really! Craig came home from LA and was afraid to kiss me. He said it felt like he was kissing a stranger, and I said "Enjoy it while it lasts, my friend." He likes the color, and I think he wishes that I would stop asking if it looks red (I can't help it. Sometimes in certain light I SWEAR it's brown.)
Percentage of my closet that now clashes with my hair: 90% Who let me buy so many pink and orange colored tops?
The upkeep: Brutal. Blond roots growing into red hair = a new giant part that looks like you are, in fact, going bald. Red fades notoriously fast, so after 3 weeks the color is totally different. The best way I've found to combat this is to use Aveda's Madder Root color-depositing shampoo and conditioner (that wrecks our white shower and white towels and oh yeah, costs a million dollars) and Pureology Colourmax leave-in conditioner with UV protection. YOU GUYS. NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WAS SPF FOR YOUR HAIR. I would have been using it years ago, had I known! I'm considering just moving in with Stephen. It would work perfectly - he could do my hair every 2 weeks and will happily answer my "Is my hair red?" question 3 times a day with "oh hell yes, gorgeous, it's perfect!" Despite a great deal of practice I cannot for the life of me get Craig to say that with the right inflection.
Clashing with clothes aside (other than that one...it looks great), it makes your eyes look amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnd wait, what? SPF for hair? Can those of us with non-color treated hair benefit?
the WORST part of dying your hair is realizing you hate the way all your tops look with it. for what it's worth, you don't look clashy at all, and it TOTALLY suits you.
ReplyDeleteand yeah, it's definitely red.
That is straight-up amazing. Love it. It's the colour red I would looove to have, but I'm a henna girl and not giving that up. It makes my mousy brown hair into a coppery-brown. I sometimes wish it was more red, but I love henna for being cheap, good for my hair, and growing out nicely so I'm sticking with it.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous. I love red hair and I've kind of wanted it for years, but the upkeep scares me. It's stunning with your skin tone!
ReplyDeleteI am incredibly jealous too. Oh I really want a change!! It looks so good on you.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes it is red!!
STOP BEING SO PRETTY RIGHT THIS SECOND!
ReplyDeleteomg you look AMAZING! Stunning, I love it. And it's definitely red. I have always said I'd never dye my hair, because I have naturally blonde hair and my mum would kill me. But I have a secret dream of being a redhead one day, and you have just given me major hair envy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wrote a really long and (I hoped) thoughtful response to your last post, but then my work computer ate it, and I didn't think you'd appreciate a comment that just said FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
It's definitely red, and it's definitely gorgeous. Now I want to dye my hair red. But it would have to be a dark reddish brown or it would look absurd with my olive-ish complexion.
ReplyDelete(Also? I want redheaded babies. Or just 1 redheaded baby. That would be enough. Hopefully my husband's genes can make that happen - he had a redheaded (great?) grandmother.)
I never thought people who looked that good blonde could look this freaking amazing red-headed.
ReplyDeleteDamn, girl.
YOU LOOK FUCKING FANTASTIC. I MEAN IT. you just made my girl crush list.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, dude! You look AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteohmygosh, this suits you AMAZINGLY. it really looks natural. perfect color. i want to punch your face for looking so good.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! (With Stephen's inflection.)
ReplyDeleteI went reddish once. On my dark base it ended up kind of... purple. That was my opinion anyway. I admire your balls in going all out red. It's awesome.
I think this red looks fantastic...I've done the fire truck red before when I was in college. Red hair on an asian rarely looks good! lol
ReplyDeleteI believe you will look back on this decision, in a few decades, as a Very Good One. At 50, it's hard to dye your hair red without making a statement one may not want to make. As a result, I will probably leave this earth not knowing how I looked and felt with red hair. Quite sad, really.
ReplyDelete