Hi.
My name is Bonnie and I have a disease called "I don't know when to leave my hair alone."
My hair had somehow finally morphed into a beautiful shade of light brown. After many years of almost black, I had left it alone long enough for it to fade into the perfect color for my age and lifestyle.
One day, I decided to try the new Clairol Natural Instincts BRASS FREE non permanent hair color in Medium Brown. Even though my hair was a cool color, it was very brassy with that awesome orange glow.
My husband saw me pull it out of the closest and said "Is that going to make your hair darker?...don't do it." I listened to him that day. But a few weeks later, there was this very unruly gray hair.It's semi-permanent, how bad could it be?
Oh it be. 2 years of being "good" and only dying my roots every 3 months went down the drain. Apparently no matter how good of condition my hair appears to be in, it will always soak up the color and turn black. Of course I got the "I told you so" head shake from Keith. It didn't matter. I didn't like it, either!
Like everyone else who makes this mistake, I washed my hair 3 times a day for a week trying to lighten it. 28 shampoos my ass. So I did what any normal person would do. I raged an all out war with my hair.
I got out my trusty in-case-of-emergency highlighting kit. (Doesn't everyone have one of these?) Revlon Frost N'Glow in Honey for Medium to Dark Brown hair. I added about 30 highlights in the front, sides and overall top layer of my hair. They came out good- not to bright or orange, but still not back to the color I had.
The following weekend, I did a second box of Revlon Frost N'Glow, this time Chestnut for Dark Brown to Black hair. I only worked on the middle to underneath layers.
Success! Although my hair is far from the light brown it was, at least it is no longer black.
But I'm not done yet. The final coloring stage I have planned is one that I originally used last Spring that I think really made the light brown thing happen. I have a box of L'Oreal Coloeur Experte kit in Praline 6.2 light irridescent brown.
However, since I am not trying to make my hair break off at the root, this step must wait. I have dyed my hair with semi-permanent and 2 separate highlighting kits within 3 weeks. Adding a fourth in 4 weeks would surely kill my hair for good. I have put into effect a month long intensive repairing regime in order to prepare my hair for the final step and get it back on track to good health.
*note*- Keep in mind that my hair was in almost perfect condition, no split ends, no broken ends, soft and strong before I did all of this crap. If you feel you might have "I don't know when to leave my hair alone" syndrome, please stop here and get help before it's too late.
See the upcoming entries to learn about my next steps in
--patti