Why It Always Pays to Have a Professional Dye Your Hair

I dyed my hair for the first time ever roughly five months ago.

It was a nerve-racking experience, but also helped me become less hesitant when it comes to trying new things. The only downside was that I spent a pretty penny in the process, a whopping $290—yikes!

After how well my hair turned out the first time though, I decided I was ready to dye it again. The first time I dyed it, it was a blood-orange color that eventually faded into a light strawberry blonde.

Feeling adventurous, I settled upon dyeing my locks a deep purple hue. Not wanting to pay an arm and a leg, I hit up one of my friends who does hair to see if she'd be interested in dyeing my mane for me.

She agreed and I was so stoked to get the purple hair of my dreams for little to no cost.

One fateful Saturday evening, she and our other friend came over to dye my hair. We sat up a little makeshift salon in my kitchen and watched Netflix while the dye was being slathered on my hair.

My friend didn't bleach my hair first, though I figured she would, but I didn't worry. She dyed her mom's hair all the time and it looked great, so I just sat back and let her do her job.

Once she finished painting the dye onto my locks, we let the color sit for 45 minutes. After what seemed like an eternity, the timer finally went off and it was time for me to wash the dye out of my hair.

I rushed into the bathroom and was pleased with how purple the dye looked, but then I washed it out and it looked brown in my hair.

That wasn't even the worst part. I would've been fine if my hair turned out brown, but the dye didn't touch all of my hair. There were random chunks of strawberry blonde scattered throughout my hair. It was atrocious.

I figured my friend knew this was an issue and was going to prepare more dye, but when I walked out of the bathroom, she didn't even flinch at the mess on my head.

I didn't want to come off panicked or upset, so I casually asked if she had any more dye with her for the un-dyed pieces. She didn't.

Irritated, but still trying to remain calm, I mentioned that I'd be willing to take us to Ralph's to pick up some box dye and off we went. When we got back from the store, she said she would come back another day to fix my hair, because it would cause too much damage to put even more dye over my hair in its current state.

I pretended to be totally chill about the whole thing, but was enraged by the outcome of the evening. The only thing that made me feel a little okay was knowing that neither of my friends seemed to think my hair looked as bad as I thought it did. So I went to bed and hoped my hair would look better in the morning, but it didn't.

I took one look at the outcome of the previous night's events and screamed. I was horrified at the sight of my poorly colored locks. I spent the rest of the day frantically calling, emailing and texting various salons around the Long Beach area to see if anyone could help me. Everyone was either closed or booked.

(via Shutterstock)

I had almost abandoned all hope when I decided to call one more salon. Thankfully, they answered and I was able to schedule an appointment for the following day.

The stylist then texted me to get all the details on the current state of my hair and the color I was hoping for. I sent her a couple pictures of my mane, along with some pics of girls rocking pretty purple hair.

While I was all about going purple, the stylist was totally honest with me about that not being the best idea. She said she'd have to bleach my hair and that the purple would probably only stay in for a few weeks at best.

Considering how wrong it went when I first attempted to dye my hair purple, I decided that going back to strawberry blonde seemed like the right thing to do.

On my way to the salon the following morning, I realized I still wanted a change and I did like the brown hue (most of) my hair had become. Plus, the stylist also mentioned that it would take a few sessions for me to get the blonde color I was hoping for and I just wanted to leave the salon that same day with one color.

I eventually decided on a dark brown hue, using a photo of Lana Del Rey as a reference.

During the whole coloring process, I was definitely nervous. I was worried I was still going to have random chunks of blonde, or who knows what color, in my hair, or that I wouldn't even like it when it was all said and done.

Neither of those scenarios played out, and I was more than satisfied with how my hair turned out.

The stylist added a bit of red to my hair because she mentioned I wasn't boring enough to be just your run-of-the-mill brunette. No offense to you brunettes out there.????

I've been rocking this color for about a week now, and I have to say, I'm still all for it. It's definitely a change, but one that I'm totally happy with.

I don't think I'll dye my hair a crazy color anytime soon, or maybe even ever. If this experience has taught me anything, it's that it pays to pay for your hair color.

Unless you're a stylist or well-versed in the art of dyeing hair, don't do it yourself or for your unsuspecting friends (cough, cough!). Go to a salon. It will make the experience far less frightening, I promise.

 

If you are thinking of dyeing your hair purple, pink or even green, I strongly suggest seeing how it looks before going crazy. The easiest way to do that is by using THESE hair chalks from Splat.