Silver and gold describe what most girls dream of, but not necessarily the perfect hair color. Many of us these days are becoming more frugal, for example, using boxed dyes instead of going to the salon. I am a firm believer of the “why pay full price when I can do it myself” attitude, but recently, I had a life altering hair experience and I have to admit this statement no longer applies to my hair.
A few months ago I made a trip to the salon for an edgy flare of blonde hair and a rich dark brown underneath – too edgy to tackle myself. Of course after a few months roots grow, so a trip to the grocery store to procure a new box of blonde quickly turned into an orange/gold root catastrophe.
I tried to convince myself it wasn’t that bad but when toner did not calm it down I was back at the store in a flash. Medium ash blonde boxed color caught my eye thinking I could just start over with something similar to my natural color, but the situation again grew worse. Now to complement the orange/gold roots, I had silver hair! Of course my mom and sister quickly tried to give me a reassuring, wide eyed “It’s not that bad, I mean it will wash out some, right?”
It was too late to go where I should have gone to begin with, the salon. Thank goodness, the beauty supply store was open and with some great tips from one of the ladies working I headed back home with a brown dye, toner, developer and protein filler. Unfortunately only a temporary fix, it too faded to a shade of gray/blonde blah. Not to mention the chemical peel my scalp endured. Embarrassingly enough, it looked like I had a severe case of dandruff for about two weeks. It was officially too bad to fix myself.
I headed to Catwalk Hair Studio in Bryan to visit highly recommended hair stylist Tara Ripper. I admit I had my doubts. She took one look at my dull, brittle, frizzy hair, listened to my story and gently scolded me for poor decisions and damaged hair. She explained why the box is not a good alternative to salon quality dye. As Tara so accurately put it, chemically treating your hair is “like a sunburn, your hair can only take so much.”
The problem with boxed dye – they are “triple and quadruple pigmented” so you never truly know what kind of color you’re going to get. Tara explained that there is not a moisturizing agent in boxed dye like there is in salon quality dye, and the “hair becomes porous.” In order to correct this they “overcompensate the damage” done by including lots of conditioner that typically does not do any good. Marietta Henly, another hair stylist with the studio explained that many people “have heard to use an ash (color) if they have natural red highlights,” but she explained that this is a mistake because it can “give your hair that green or gray tint.” Henly said that you want to remember that “artificial pigment won’t lift artificial pigment; it will only lift natural pigment.”
Essentially, using a box dye to correct a box dye is “unpredictable.” So will Tara be able to help me? Stay tuned for part two where I reveal the fix and get tips on how to survive while in between hair salon trips or in the middle of a disaster hair experiment.