Friday, January 9, 2009

Why Hairdressers Need a License

Because money's a little tight this month, I opted to color my hair myself. This was probably not the best plan considering I'm having pictures taken for an article in Hallmark Magazine next week. OK, so I bought some hair color and opened the box, took out the directions, and began to read.

USAGE ADVISORY - SAFETY WARNINGS (READ BEFORE COLORING)
Skin allergy test: to be performed 48 hours before each use of this product,

Nah, does anyone actually ever do this? Who wants to wait 48 hours? I continued reading.

Even if you have already used this or another haircolor product.

Eh, I'm sure it's no big deal if you've had your hair colored in the past. I can just skip this part. I continued.

IMPORTANT: THIS PRODUCT CAN CAUSE AN ALLERGIC REACTION WHICH, IN CERTAIN RARE CASES, CAN BE SEVERE. TO HELP MINIMIZE THE RISK OF AN ALLERGIC REACTION, YOU MUST FOLLOW THESE PRECAUTIONS...

"Severe reactions"? Oooo that doesn't sound good. Maybe I really should do an allergy test. Then again, I DO have my Epi-pen.... Let's throw caution to the wind and slap the stuff on my head.

So, I followed the rest of the directions, mixed the dye, slathered my hair, piled it on top of my head and waited 25 minutes.

I rinsed and conditioned and towel dried. Then I looked in a mirror. OK, it looks plain brown. Plain is fine. It looks pretty close to my natural color. Well, as far as I remember. It's been a while since I've seen my natural color. I parted my hair to see if it covered the gray.

OH. MY. GOSH. Well, the gray was covered all right. It was covered with a funky orange color! Why are my roots orange?! This box does NOT show a model with orange roots! I looked at the directions again. 25 minutes. It said 25 minutes. I waited 25 minutes. WHY IS MY HAIR ORANGE?! Excellent. Hallmark can change the title of the article to CarrotTop: The Mom, The Myth, The Legend.

Maybe if I just change my make-up, no one will notice the orange in my hair. Yeah, like maybe if I do my make-up like this...


Or perhaps like this...



Maybe, just maybe, that'll distract people from the wreck that is my hair. Ugh, I give up. Baseball caps are making a comeback, right?

And check out my review blog HERE for a chance to win a crate of Clementines from Spain!

47 comments:

Lori said...

Hey, where's your picture? :)

ClistyB said...

actually I feel responsible for this. I thought about giving you a hard time last night when you said on FB that you were going to do it on your own.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Maybe I SHOULD be doing those 48 hour tests, huh? Who says your blog isn't informational??? LOL Will you be able to get it fixed in time for your pictures for Hallmark? Also, what month is this article going to run?

Thanks for the picture of Bozo right before I go to bed. I just HATE clowns!!!!

Donna in PA :)

AutoSysGene said...

Been there, done that...though I dyed my hair purple...yeah, last time I used a box.

I think you shoul go for the Bozo makeup! :)

Anonymous said...

OMG!!! Tried to do my own hair ONE TIME and after calling the 800 # screaming that it was burning my hair off the lady calmly asked me if I had done the skin test 48 hrs. prior...I promptly hung up. Needless to say, NO!!!! Who woulda thought they meant that? Lucky for me, my hair was not auburn based so it didn't turn orange.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, sometimes there are instructions to leave the dye on longer if you want to cover gray. I know that Garnier has this in their instruction list, not sure about others. And no, never done the allergy test. I figure I'd have a pretty decent looking bald head. :)

Anonymous said...

Haha, oh dear!
I usually colour mine with box dye and my natural colour is a mousy grey/blonde so i leave it on a little longer that stated.
Although this time round i picked a dye that was too light so the roots did come out a little ginger. I'm just re dying mine with the next shade darker.

Also, a clown warning next time would be great!!

Michelle said...

Freak that I am having never colored my hair... no way would I do an allergy test. Whatever! I can't wait 48 hours once I decide I need a new hair color.

But ummm, really, Dawn, no pic? Pretty please?

Shellie said...

This is why I gave up on hair coloring. Until I forget again.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA
I accidentally turned my hair orange once, trying to remove red dye which also accidentally only covered half of my then-blonde hair.
I went to the hairdresser in tears the next morning with orange, red, pink, and blonde hair. She almost cried looking at me.

But, she did fix it!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm sure it's nothing that $200 at a salon won't fix.

Last month, I had my stylist perm my hair in anticipation of adding hair extensions. (Don't go there. They look great, but only if you can stand the hassle. I had my husband take them out just before New Year's using pliers from the garage.) She actually missed a strand, so I did it myself with one of those home kits.

Yah, now I have one section that looks much bouncier than the rest of my head. I'll never try to work with my own hair again. (Until the next time I get cheap.)

Feisty Irish Wench said...

I'm a Garnier girl myself..and was using a color that was reddish brown, but after several uses it seemed to leave my hair with purple tones in it, when I wanted red. This time, I got a brownish red so it would be closer to my natural haircolor. No purple this time as far as I can tell.

Anonymous said...

Look at that positive.... no allergic reaction!! :)
Debbie

Tammy said...

I color my own hair about 4 times a year. I never do the test. I always feel like my scalp is disintegrating. One time my hair ended up with a pinkish tint in the sun. Ick. A close friend of mine who likes to be platinum blond once ended up light blue. Not good.

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh about your orange roots. Reminded me of when I did mine and used ash blond instead of beige blond to tone down the brassy look. My hair came out a pale blond with a greenish cast to it, so it was 'wrap a scarf around your head and book it down to the nearest drug store and buy another color, and end up spending as much as if you had just made the appointment and let them do it to begin with!' Other than my hair being stiff as hay and needing a special moisturizing treatment on my next salon visit, it went pretty well I think, although the Bozo picture is how I felt it looked only without the red. Oh, and thanks for that, by the way. Ever since I first saw that face I can't get the theme music for the old Bozo TV show out of my head. Maybe I'll be able to make it go away if I read for awhile before going to bed.
Good night all! ;)

Liz's Random Thoughts said...

Simple fix, go to target and by a cute hat! Or turn Amish and wear a prayer cap?...Hmm...Or try try again?

Anonymous said...

Oh, don't feel bad about that test thing. My mom IS a hairdresser & owned her own salon. When I first wanted to do my own hair, I told her about the allergy test & she LAUGHED at me & called me a cry baby. I've never used the allergy test. It's been years & no problems yet. Well, I've had color problems, but nothing else usually. :)

Anonymous said...

Dawn-
We want a photo and we want it NOW!

Anonymous said...

Picture Please! :D

Unknown said...

There are several factors that can cause this.

The product was out of date

You're pregnant. Pregnancy messes with the hair and can turn it a rainbow of colors.

It could've been left on longer.

Beauty schools usually do color fairly cheap, and if you have a sally beauty supply near you, you can get the stuff and mix your own. You get a tube of color, volumizer (it should be near the color) and the essentials (bottles, brushes, a mixing bowl.) IF you do opt for this, get 20 volume for darker color.

Sila Lumenn said...

Dawn, I feel your pain. I dyed my hair orange from roots to tips about a week before a huge family reunion.

Brooks Family said...

Oh dear, I did the same thing. The dye had a chemical reaction with dye already in my hair...my hairdresser fixed it for me as I simply could NOT go around like that! PIC!

Sarah McBride said...

as a cosmetology student i can tell you that 60% of the people I see are coming in to get their color corrected...
dont worry I have colored my hair pink, orange, bozo red(all on accident) we all do it.

Unknown said...

If it's too awful there's a product called "Goof Off" or something like that which will remove the latest hair coloring only. I used it once (long story) and my hair actually looked better than before I colored it! I found it at our local drug store in the hair color aisle. Good luck!
Sue
www.slotsaroundtheclock.com

Anonymous said...

I have so been there. In an attempt to color my greys I too chose a neutral color and wound up with my normal color with orange streaks where the grey used to be. They need to put THAT warning on the box.

2boystwingirls said...

Dawn!
What kind of blogger ARE you??? No pictures? Don't you know we all live out here in cyber world just waiting for pictures of this kind of stuff???

Oh, and I'm sorry you have orange roots. Hey, I had a WHOLE head of orange in 7th grade when I just *knew* that spraying Sun-In would make me beautiful!
Michele

Andi said...

I never color my own hair, the sun does it naturally for me. but I kind of like my color anyway.

DeAnn said...

Just this week I DIY'd my own color for the first time. Had identical mental response to allergy warnings! Thankfully I was quite pleased with the color. I figure if I could DIY every other time I could save a few bucks. The color was on sale for $5.99 w/ free labor, and the stylist would have charged at least $40. Worth the risk at my house.

www.thistimeimready.blogspot.com

MaBunny said...

I've colored my hair before and only once did i look like bozo the clown...I'm blond, and am starting to get gray, but its mixing with the blond so well, I don't think i'll color my hair anymore, lol.

Roni said...

OMG!! I have been coloring my hair for years now. I only had one time where it turned my hair a strange shade of kinda orange red... I threw on a hat and got to the CVS.. they have hair dye removal... and I then redid it the color I wanted. How about a picture of your hair?

Anonymous said...

what brand did you use? Just so I can (hopefully) avoid that issue for myself. I NEVER do the allergy test and I've been coloring my hair for 10+ years. I haven't seen my natural hair color since high school, I don't honestly know if I have any grey hair yet b/c I color it every month LOL. I'm sure I do though, I am a mom after all. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm going to change the subject and I don't usually read the comments left so I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this...have you heard about CPSIA HR4040. It's a law that is due to go into affect Feb 10, 2009 and will basically put small business/handicrafts out of business and won't really affect the big business--such as walmart, target, etc. This won't just affect buying a handmade dress for your daughter but it also affects books, and handmade toys, etc.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5276063

If you go to the comment part of the above post, there is a comment by a poster called "Luminous" titled "lets not turn this into a Walmart war" who explains what will happen to the small business owners.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia


I'm hoping that if you feel how unwise this law is that you would post this on your site. You have so many readers it would really get the word out.

I am not a seller of handicraft items, but I do have 5 kids and I prefer to buy these kinds of items then things made in china.


kaylene
kaylene

Anonymous said...

Hey, Dawn, I had a question. I just recently saw your "purse dump" post and I saw that you have a bunch of lip glosses. I can't find a good one that I actually like; what's your favorite type? I like the basic Chap Stic type things, but most of them have a strange flavor or dry my lips up worse than ever.

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

So you're not gonna show us what it really looks like?

Well, at least you took the cheap way out. I paid to have mine done yesterday, and then we decided to difuse it for something different. Little did I know I have natural wave in my hair and WOW!!! IT CURLED FROM HERE TO HIGH HEAVEN!!! OMG!

PS--When's Lunch? Next FRIDAY I HOPE?!?!?!

Gothic ʚϊɞ said...

I've done the same thing. I have never done an allergy test and used the same box for many apps. One time (and the last) it did the same thing to my roots. My hubby laughed at me and my son called me a clown for weeks.

One-sock said...

Like someone else mentioned, I had bad experiences with Sun-in when I was a kid...do they even make that stuff anymore???

Dorothy said...

I love the eye make up my brother told me that's how I put mine on goes with the color of your hair...

Loved he post..

Hope hallmark goes well...

Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com

Anonymous said...

Yilkes! I was going to color my hair myself, but may not now!! That happened to my mom this past summer, she went for blonde like always, same box, same brand ect... it turned her hair SILVER!! She was trying to color the grey not make it bright SILVER!! Too it over 3 months to get it to be a brassy blonde. Hopefully you can get it fixed!

noexcuses said...

Oh, I so feel your pain!!! Go get it fixed by a professional...it's worth the extra $$.

After 15 years of coloring I finally gave up and let the darn grey grow in. I got lucky...it's an okay white/grey mix.

Would really love to see a pic, tho!

Anonymous said...

I had some lovely red highlights put in a couple of years ago (professionally) and was told that it might look strange on the grey ones b/c grey hair takes color differently. I don't have many grey hairs (still a young chick here) but the ones I did have at that time were striped like a barber's pole! I pulled those suckers out!

Anonymous said...

Not trying to hijack your blog Dawn... but I just wanted to reply to kaylene's remark about CPSIA HR4040... there has been some clarification that basically says it is ok to sell or resell baby and children's items unless you are knowingly selling something that either has lead or is "likely to have lead content". In that case you are liable.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html

~Erica

Anonymous said...

Sorry to keep on about this. But I wanted to clarify Erica's comment. I went to the link she posted and it only says that resellers do not have to test. I assume that means that people making handmade items to sell on the internet or craft stores etc, are still responsible to test for lead even if they use american made products.

kaylene

Anonymous said...

Baseball caps are good. Shaving your head is better! NO Maintenance at all. Had mine shaved last week because my hair started to fall out from chemotherapy treatments. I was depressed at first, but now it's not so bad. BALDIES RULE!
When I returned two unused boxes of haircolor to the store, the clerk asked why I was returning it. When I told him it was because my oncologist said I won't need to color my hair for awile, the clerk looked at me, and in all seriousness said, "That's probably a good thing, honey, because coloring your hair gives you CANCER!" DUH! (comment - that's not a proven fact)

Anonymous said...

Hi Dawn, I am a hair designer as you might remember. I have never done an allergy test on my clients and all is fine. The only thing I find about hair colour is it can make your scalp ITCH! I found the best store bought box colour is Natural Instincts. It has no ammonia and is kinder to your hair. Just make sure you put it on your roots first if you are trying to cover grey. I leave it on my roots for 20 min and pull it through the ends for 15 min more. If it's any help red/orange washes out really fast. Kristine in Michigan.

Anonymous said...

At least your roots aren't that grown out. Last year I dyed my hair a slightly darker brown... then a few months later dyed it a little lighter. Well then I left it alone for about 3 months & decided to die it again... I ended up with almost 3" of an orange-ish light brown colored hair with an unchanged barely dark brown hair! I didn't have the money to get it fixed in a salon so I had the neighbor dye it back to a medium much less noticeable brown & left it for 6 months until I decided I was tired of long hair anyways!

Lorna said...

I'm pretty sure that 48 hour test is just a scam to make you buy 2 boxes of color. The dye stops working within 30 min or so after you mix it, so if you do the test you need to throw out the excess and buy another box to do your hair 2 days later.

rae said...

Not cool Dawn! You can't put pictures of clowns on your blog and not warn us!!! I am gonna be afraid to read from now on!

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