Bad Hair Day

My husband has been begging me to dye my hair for months now. I've been able to put him off with complaints of no time, no money, no wanna, but finally yesterday I gave in and did the deed. To save money, I bought some L'Oreal stuff at the grocery store, despite my record of two disastrous self-coloring jobs over the years, one of which occurred around Halloween, which was fortunate, considering I gave myself orange hair. It made for a good costume, but when the day after Halloween rolled around, the party was over and ghoulish was no longer in. 

I've had professionals color my hair since the Carrot Top Debacle, but I have to be honest here. I simply don't like getting my hair done. I despise sitting in front of a mirror for longer than ten minutes, and no matter where I go, my hair never looks like it did when I was in my early twenties, before my first child gave me grey hair. Had I known then how things would turn out now, I would have enjoyed my hair a lot more. I would not have complained that it was too frizzy, or too long, or too brown. If I had known that in my late thirties I would be battling coarse shoots of grey that look a little too much like cat whiskers, I would have built a shrine to my hair in all of my college apartments. I would have lit candles and prayed to the gods of mousy brown hair and thanked them for the color, however dull it may have seemed. At least when I looked in the mirror back then I recognized myself. Now, when I look in the mirror I see someone trying to battle the inevitable. 

So now my hair is not brown, as it was supposed to have been. It's what my husband calls "dark brown," but which I call "black." Not jet black, but black-ish. Today I spent hours washing it in various shampoos women on the internet advised me would surely lighten things up. But alas, when I emerged from the shower in a cloud of steam and wiped the mirror with my pruney fingers, my hair looked the same. That is to say, like Morticia Adams. My best bet, the internet women advised, is to wait it out for a couple of months until the color fades a bit and try again. Until then, I am to wear my hair in a pony tail and try not to scare anyone. On the up side, I could call this a mid-life crisis, a yearning to look like a Goth or a Mod. But somehow, when even my cat looks at me askance, as if checking to make sure she's sidling up to the right person, this doesn't make me feel better. 

Comments

[Melanie]

Now you know why I went gray -- when I was 30! :-)

[LauraB.]

You always look good Susan. If you absolutley hate it, you can go to a salon and they will bleach it out and dye it a more natural color. I am speaking from experience...remember the woman who died my hair black when I said I wanted to go a little darker. I felt like a goth! Then from there they took me almost blonde. I'd look in the mirror and wonder who this woman was looking back at me. I eventually got used to it. Now I'm doing my own hair again and it's somewhere between blonde and dark brown. I haven't decided yet. Just keep washing your hair with baby shampoo or head and shoulders and it will eventually lighten up. Then you probably should use a light brown or dark blonde on your hair, but you will have to wait until it is closer to the normal color before, because I don't think that you can go from dark to light without bleaching it inbetween. Oh the joys of being a woman! Guys have it so much easier when it comes to hair care.

[michelle]

If you really hate it, call Carol Shelton. She is amazing with fixing hair! She teaches cosmotology at SLCC. Call her! She is great!!! (And you are beautiful! You are one of those women who will look beautiful at every stage of life!)

[MaryB]

Now you just stop it! I think your hair looks good! It's just different than you're used to. Give it some time and you'll learn to like it. By the way, I NEVER thought you had mousy brown hair. You always seem to have good hair and good hair do's...I'm always so jealous of you! Gosh! ♥♥♥