Hair Today, Dyed Tomorrow

I've been bleaching my hair for about a year now, to a very platinum shade of blonde. You know, the most destructive and damaging colour a woman can possibly force her hair to. All in the name of fashion. And a slight temper tantrum, in which I wanted to show someone that I really didn't care what they were doing cuz I had lots of stuff going on in my own life. But we won't go there. Anyway, when I started contemplating colouring my hair a non-blonde colour a few months ago, I mentioned my thoughts to Star, who used to be involved in the beauty industry. She told me that I'd have to be very careful finding a colour, because most browns would end up turning my hair green or something weird — and not a cool Manic Panic green either. Star offered to go with me to find a good colour, but we never managed to get out to a store. Now, I have a job interview on Friday, and I simply cannot go with my extremely obvious brown roots. A dye must be found.

I will say now that Google does not have all the answers. As often as I'd tried Googling search phrases like "brown dye for bleach blonde hair" and "dying bleach blonde hair brown" or what have you, nothing useful ever came up. It was always something on the opposite, which I could care less about at this point.

So today I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a Clairol colour consultant. I used Clairol bleach this whole time (Born Blonde Maxi, for the curious) and thought it would be best to stick with the same brand. After a few minutes on hold, I was connected to a lovely Southern gent named Bobby, who walked me through finding the correct colour. We did the basics of what my natural colour is, how I've been colouring it, and what I'd like to go to. Then he told me to get a pen and paper, because he had a few instructions to write down.

Basically, I can't go deep brown right off the bat. My hair just couldn't handle it, and most any colour I used would end up turning my hair one of those unappealing shades of green, blue, or purple. Really, it sounds fun, but it wouldn't be. What he said I have to do to get back to a more natural brown is in fact dye it something with a red base first, then a brown over that, similar to how dying fabric red before dying it black gives the final product a truer colour. Bobby gave me two specific Nice'n'Easy colours, 108 (a natural reddish blonde) and 106a (a dark neutral blonde), with very detailed special mixing instructions. I didn't realize it would be so complicated. To me it seems like I'm hacking the hair dye, using an ounce of this and no developer for that. Supposedly, the end results will be a light reddish brown, and after about a week of washing the red will fade, leaving the brown behind. After that, I can use a wider range of colours because my hair will have more tolerance. That's what Bobby from Clairol tells me, at least.

So, I'm off to the megalosupersavingsbulk-store, to hope that they have the right colours in stock and that I don't end up skirting around town to this and that store all afternoon hunting. Then I will return home, and start the dying process. With my fingers tightly crossed. And an update will definitely follow, oh yes. And as soon as I find the box my camera was packed in, maybe even pictures... ;)