The very next weekend, one of my fellow church members walked into church with some of the most gorgeous red hair color I have ever seen. I mean it was RED!!! She changes her hair color as much as I do. She told me who did her hair, but with my bad experience with hair colorists, I was skeptical. I decided to go out and buy some over the counter red hair color. I bought several different colors and did some strand testing. It literally did nothing to my hair. I suspect it is because color won't lift color and I already had color in my hair. I broke down and called her hair colorist and told her I wanted my hair the same way. I went in and she assured me that my hair would be the same color. She did my hair and due to the low-lighting in the shop, I could not really tell if it was the same color. When I got home, it was definitely not the same color as my friend's. Mine was red around the roots and became more brown toward the ends. I was SO DISAPPOINTED.
Now let's fast forward to a couple of weeks back. I was talking to a co-worker and she suggested a colorist to me. She strongly suggested I go see this woman because she was "excellent with color." I went to see her and she consulted with me. She actually snipped a strand of my hair to test it. At this point I was feeling pretty good. She assured me that she had been doing hair for 40 years and she could definitely get it the color I wanted. I was concerned about the health of my hair and not wanting to lose any, so she made me feel better about that too. I made an appointment for this past Friday. I was so excited and was counting down the days. I was going to finally have the red hair I wanted. I had showed her pictures and she had assured me it would be that color I wanted.
Well, Friday finally arrived and I was SO EXCITED. I plopped down in the chair and she got to work. She told me she had been giving lots of thought to how she was going to approach my hair. The first thing she did was remove the brown color already in it. Then she put the red on my roots and pulled it through the rest of my hair. After it processed, she looked at it, she said it had turned dark brown, but that the roots were perfect. She went through a second round of removing my hair color and said it was PERFECT. I looked in the mirror and it WAS pretty and in great condition, but not what I had asked for. I actually got what I did not want, which is strawberry blond hair What I wanted was this:
Emily Blunt in "The Devil Wears Prada"
What I got was this:
Nicole Kidman
I ...GIVE... UP!!!!! If you are still reading, bless you. If you were in my position, would you just give up, or would you keep trying? If you have any suggestions or have had a similar experience, I would so love to hear it. Thanks for listening. I just needed to vent.
19 comments:
How disappointing! I've never ad much luck with hair colouring, in fact I recently cut my hair short to get all the colour out and to just give up and go grey! You definitely have my full sympathy. You would look fantastic as a redhead, it would suit your quirky, feminine style perfectly.
I wonder about calling he P&G or Loreal helplines. At least it wouldn't cost you anything.
Any colorist, even the cheap ones, will redo the color for free if you are not happy with it the first time. GO BACK!!! Just give her a call and tell her it wasn't the color you were looking for, and you'd like to come back and have her add more red. Bring pictures to your appointment, be specific and tell her you want an intense red, not a natural red. Trust me, I've gone back to a colorist more than once before. :)
I agree with JT, you should call and say its not what you were looking for and have her add more color.
Good luck!
I agree with JT, you shouldn't have to live or pay for something you didn't ask for. I would go back with a picture of the color you wanted and have the sylist fix it.
I just used a haircolor I bought at wholefoods called naturcolor. The color is fabulous!!!! You have to ask for the color strands. I would try it. I would also make the colorist do it over since she did it wrong... so sorry you are having such haircolor issues...
I went through a time where no one seemed to be able to cover my strands of grey. Even when I paid a lot of money. Made me mad when my grey was back in 1 week after paying $100 to have my greys covered!
I agree with the other gals here, you paid a ton of money for the colorist, you should have what you want.
I imagine it would be hard to call back up and say that you're unhappy with the color. But I really think it's worth it given the fact you've tried so much in the past.
Kudos that your hair still looks and feels wonderful after all of the color treatments it's had. :)
I have two sisters who are hair stylists, and have a shop together. The worst thing you can do is just keep going to colorist after colorist. You need to commit to one that YOU trust, and you have to be honest and tell her it isn't what you wanted. While they will tell you they cannot guarantee how your hair will respond after being colored so many times, so you may have to pay for the products etc., but at least ONE person would know what's been put into your hair. The last thing my sisters want is for someone to just leave and not tell them why. They want to make it right. Good luck.
I have red hair (from a bottle) which I LOVE. But I always always speak up. You absolutely must speak up. I go to a Paul Mitchell school and get my color done for $18. (I know!) But one of the times it wasn't right and I spoke right up and they re-did it right then. I now just get the same formula each time. But I am wondering if you are suffering from over-processed hair. I would call your colorist and talk to her.
I dye my hair red for years on end and then I get sick of the upkeep and go back to my natural colour (these days it's a mousy blonde). I've never had a hairdresser do my hair red, I just use a supermarket colour and it's always worked perfectly - mind you, it is an incredibly intense red which is what I like. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to my hair, so I won't pay the price of a colour at a salon especially as I've seen some atrocious results and heard bad stories. It takes so long at a hairdresser - I can't be bothered. Also, the strongest dye I use is a semi-permanent, I couldn't stand to have hair that isn't naturally soft.
If I were you, I'd go to the pharmacy/supermarket and spent $5 on a red you like - at the worst, you've wasted $5 and half an hour.
I agree that you should go back and talk to the colourist. I always go back when I'm not happy. My hairdresser always says he would rather I come back to him than go away never come back. If you're putting colour over colour, you may never be able to get the exact shade you're after. I currently am wearing a full bleach Annie Lennox style and no matter how hard my colourist tries, my very dark brown hair will never bleach down to the glow in the dark gray/white that it used to when I was younger and fairer. It's simple science. I've learned to live with the particular shade of platinum my hair achieves. It's not what I had dreamed of, but my hairdresser always makes it look good. I'm sure if you talk to the last person who did your hair, they will do all they can to help you. I know how distressing it can be and I've left a salon in tears before, too, but I'm sure you still look as pretty as you always do!
From one bottled redhead to another wanna be redhead I'll give you some tips.
Call the shop and tell her you're not happy with the color. She should redo it for the price you paid. Take a pic of the color you want. There are red shades galore and it will take a good colorist a few combo's to get the one you want which means you need to use the same person repeatedly. They keep records of the color formula they use and can adjust (lighter/darker etc.) as needed from one appointment to the nest.
Red is a hard color to get right based on what YOU see in your mind and it most definately is a hard color to maintain. They fade/wash out faster than any other color. I re-color every 6 weeks.
The lighter color is too far from your original color (IMO). Day-um! but that's a lot of money. Ask her to fix it.
I say go back. I use Egyptian Red henna. This is a colour that I love.. it is natural and it is RED! Henna makes your hair SO soft and health but it coats the hair not penetrate like hair colour does. You cannot dye over it with colour until it grows out. It makes greys so RED. It can also run when wet... but colour and shine is unbeatable - I do it myself and get it from the health shop.
That's so frustrating! Mine's dyed and it definitely took my hairdresser a couple of tries to work out how my hair takes colour. She has to go much darker than you'd expect to get the right shade. Go back, and good luck!
I hope you can get her to fix it. I really have no clue about colour. My stylist knows what to do to cover my grey and get it attractively similar (in other words, much importuned) to my natural brown.
I love red hair. My DH is a gorgeous (and now attractively greying) red head and it still disappoints me that my kids ended up with my hair...
-Sewingelle
Rachel, This is in response to your questions on my blog. I don't know that much about henna, but it is a plant - you can get it in different colours but true pure henna is RED , all other henna colours have something added to them to change to black or brown etc. Because it coats the hair it makes it a little thicker overall. It normally runs during washing or swimming and the colour fades away eventually. I have dark brown hair and it glows in the sun when I have used the henna. HOwever, I don't think it will be RED like cosmetic colours ever - I know the red you want - my niece had it and it looks great - but oh so hard to achieve I think. The colour of the henna will be different on every one because of how long you leave it to cure (1-2 hours) and the colour of your own hair base. It smells! It looks like a cow pat when you get it ready and it is thick and goopy when you put it on. Still I use it and love it now for more than 20 years. I think I only have had 2 colours in that long. I use lime juice in it and then leave it overnight and that seems to make it run less. Just a word of warning though - Indian henna is more orange; you need the Egyptian red henna. I've run out and trying to find a new stockist. Often I get it from health food shops and maybe $15 for 500g. The bodyshop sells it ( and others) but small amounts for inflated prices. I say do a test strand and see if you like it but the colour will be the most intense and shiny (like you've never seen) when you are in the sun. Hope this helps. I look forward to updates of your hair saga and I hope you return and tell them you are disapointed still.
You should not pay the money before you can make sure the color you want. Just show a sample color that you want to achieve. Otherwise the money & the expectation will be in vain. Click here to know about Threads.
I really like your blog! re: the do: You didn't get what u paid for, so she should re-do it til the cows come home, 152 bucks is nothing to sneeze at.
a new follower!
Hugs
Reva
Keep trying. Why not go watch the colorist at work before you make an appt? That way, you can see her/him at work first.
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