HAIR SAGA .... COMPLETE?

So, things have been kind of dramatic around here. Well, not really dramatic. But my hair? Yeah, lots of drama in that department.

You may recall back in December I decided that after years of being a red head that I wanted to go back to brunette. My first at-home foray down that path was questionable, so I went to the salon and got a rich, deep chocolate brown color. Unfortunately, what this revealed is that my roots are kind of light against that color, and within weeks I had a bit of a sunk strip. I attempted to rectify that situation at home - twice - but for whatever reason the dye would not take to my roots. The rest of my hair was back to being a gorgeous deep color, but my roots were this strange blondish brown color that was not at all pretty. I wore my hair in a pony tail a lot in NYC because it was quite noticeable.

The combination of the failed dye jobs, and my inability to stick with anything for any period of time led me to decide that I'd made a mistake in becoming a brunette and I decided that I wanted to go back to being a red head.

I went to a new, well-regarded salon within walking distance of our house and told the lady what I wanted. She looked at me skeptically and said that she couldn't really give me what I wanted. I was kind of shocked since I'd been that color before, having gone there from brunette. I explained that to her and she told me that she'd give it a try. I walked out with hair that had a plum/maroon cast to it, but was decidedly NOT the beautiful red that I had requested.

I wasn't happy, and she knew it. I had paid $80 for this and it was pretty(ish) but not at all near what I had asked for. She told me that in order to give me the color I wanted that she would have to strip my hair to deposit fresh color. I went back a couple of days later to get it fixed. I was there for four hours. First she put highlights "all over" my head so that I would get ... I don't know ... streaky color? Then she put the red on and my hair was pink. She realized that she needed to do another color treatment so she did it again, this time with a temporary color (I think - she said it wasn't permanent so it'd be less harsh on my hair). Then she toned it. When I left I wasn't thrilled, but at that point I was just DONE. She also charged me another $150 because she had to do it twice. I wasn't about to argue because I just wanted to go home and try to live with it.

The next day my hair didn't look horrible. In fact, it looked kind of pretty. Still not what I had asked for, but nice enough that I was willing to be happy.

You can kind of see in the pic of me with my glasses (above) that my hair was pretty fried. Unfortunately, as the days went on, the color faded and my hair started to really feel like straw.

The picture above was last week at this time, no product, air dried. It was slightly crunchy and the back had started to lose A LOT of its color, while the front was starting to pull maroon again. By the end of last week, my color was A MESS. I caught my reflection in a window as we were walking to the farmer's market and I was horrified. I told Alan that my hair looked terrible. He said he didn't notice it being any different than when I came home from the salon. So I took a picture to prove it to him.

That right there folks is pink, purple, and orange clown hair. HORRIFIED.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and buy some dye at the drug store. I mean, it couldn't get any worse, right?

 So there you have it. From brown > maroon > pink, purple, orange > deep cherry red.

Someday, I vow, I will have Christina Hendricks hair. SOMEDAY.

(PS, I'm not naked in the pictures above - I am wearing a tube maxi dress.)