My Hair Scared Me

[First off, my apologies for another post full of pictures of me, but it’s hard to get photos of my hair without me in them. However…]

As you lovely readers know, I keep changing my hair color, because I love the Overtone color/conditioner. I’m not sure why I, a Certified Tomboy, keep coloring my hair weird colors and getting my nails done, but, that’s just me, I guess. This week, however, I got a hair scare, and people kept commenting on it!

For the past couple of months (starting in mid-October), my hair has been RED. The color of a stop sign, not a ginger person’s hair. When it’s first done, and after the first wash, it’s pretty spectacular and looks good with my complexion. I really enjoyed my Red Period, which is the name of the photo at right.

The problem started when I was unable to replenish the color after three washes, which is what I normally do, since the temporary color washes out.

Over the weekend, I noticed my hair was not at all red. In fact it was quite the Thanksgiving/autumn orange. It almost looked…gasp…NATURAL! What the heck?

Sunday afternoon, after working outdoors all day, I washed it again. When I got up Monday morning, I saw the image at left. Let’s ignore the fact that I desperately need a haircut and note that there are parts of my hair that are orange, parts that are pretty much my natural brown, parts that have a little pink (that is from the rose gold rinse, I think), and parts that are a color that can only be described as yellow. Yellow?

More than one person said something about my hair yesterday when I went in to work. I finally came to the conclusion that it’s time to try another color. The red is weird.

Why Does That Happen?

So, what made my red hair turn all yellow and orange? It’s not the people at the hair coloring company’s fault. The red hair dye molecules are larger than other colors, so they don’t stick as well. According to our Garnier hair professional friends:

The issue goes all the way down to the molecule, which means that red hair color may fade faster regardless of the color kit brand or manufacturer. The red hair molecule is larger than other color molecules, so it doesn’t penetrate the cortex of the hair as deeply as other color molecules. Therefore, since it isn’t as deep, it can wash out easier.

Why does red hair color fade quickly & how to maintain colored hair

I guess it was “fun” to see what happened to the extreme red color as it faded, but the reminder that it was gonna get ugly if I didn’t maintain like crazy.

I decided to switch to the other extreme color I bought, which is rose gold. The non-extreme rose gold faded to an okay shade of pink that I can live with in my hair (even though, as a certified tomboy, pink is not my favorite color to wear).

At the moment, it is extra vibrant, to say the least. I can’t wait to see it in the sunshine. It might hurt people’s eyes. If I don’t like it, well, fine. I may have to go back to blue, which is what it was a year ago. It’s fun, and that’s all that really matters to me. I’ve been waiting and waiting to get tired of the hair colors, but, so far, I still love them.

I probably won’t let this fade out for at least a while, but I’ll let you know what pink molecules do. Are they different from red? We will see! Experimenting on one’s own head is FUN! Um, for me.

What about You?

What do you do to make your appearance fun? Tattoos? Piercings? Fun jewelry? a signature lipstick? A particular clothing style? Do tell! I’ve really been enjoying the comments you all are adding here and on Facebook, so THANKS!