Tell me your home-haircoloring disaster story, please.

[elehhhhna]

In honor of my new reddish/ brownish/ grey-blonde atrocity.

[Catshrink]

1. I learned not to use the drippy stuff....

I always use creme formulas (L'Oreal Excellence Creme -- 'cuz I'm worth it). Once the drippy stuff fell onto my cat's paw and he had an auburn stain on his paw for months.

As for color, sometimes it's too dark, sometimes too red. I've always attributed that to my skill because I've never been good at hair stuff. I know if it doesn't turn out right, I can put on a baseball cap and sneak down to Osco and buy another box.

[ellie]

2. Here's a story that

will curl your hair (ha ha). I dyed my hair black, it is usually brownish-red. After a couple of months, I got tired of it and wanted to change it. I bought bleach and thought I could bleach the black out and then re-dye it. The bleach did nothing to the black, but my roots, which had grown out in my natural color, were bleached. So now, my hair was black on the bottom and white/orange on the top. I had to go to work the next day! I went to Safeway with a hat on and had to buy dark brown and pray that it covered the white/orange. It did, but my hair was so fried that I had to get it cut (it was quite long). I should have never dyed it black in the first place. (I am too pale. I looked crazy.)

I always get it professionally dyed now.

[merh]

3. I tried that leave in spray that you put in your hair for highlights

while out in the sun.

Results: orange spongey, brittle hair all summer long. x(


I like to use the cream product - after my hair is covered, I'll wear one of those plastic shopping bags so I don't make a mess with drippage or actually bumping something.

[Lars39]

4. I looked like a leopard.

Haven't considered highlights since, and this happened about 10 years ago.
Did I mention this occurred right before a formal wedding? :scared:

[mzteris]

5. Two stories and a suggestion

When I was much younger, I decided to try and go blonde (I'm a medium brown). I used TWO boxes - one after the other because the first time it was ORANGE - really orange, so then I used another one and it was only a mild marmalade color. Then I tried to die it BACK Brown. You can imagine how ick my hair was. NO body left. SO - I went to get a perm a few weeks later. You guessed it, I suddenly had SHORT hair as my hair was so fried. (This was all back in the early 80's so products were much more toxic than now.)

Fast forward to mid 90's. My daughter had long, very thick brown hair. She was in a highschool play - South Pacific where she was a "Polynesian Dancer". The director insisted all the girls do a Black temporary rinse on their hair. Again, TWO BOXES - and her hair still wound up looking really really STRIPED - like a crazy zebra. It took in some places and not in others. She had SO MUCH HAIR. And with it being so long, the ends were very porous and the new growth, not. She had "black hair" (mostly) for almost a year.

I just "touch up the gray" now. :rofl: But I use Natural Instincts (I think that's the name - it's that temporary hair color - that last about 24 shampoos). The time before last I tried to do a "red highlight" and it came out sort of raspberry color! I just washed and washed and washed and washed . . .

[pitohui]

27. oh no not natural instincts

that is the dye in my horror story of the friend and the piece (see my previous post)

it really came out patchy, i'm afraid of it now

[Omphaloskepsis]

6. I only did it once...

Manic Panic -- Midnight Blue -- 17 years old

A total disaster. Luckily a dip in the pool removed the colour.

[China_cat]

7. I was about 12 and decided to use

a rinse to tone down the (bleached...a schoolgirl lark project with a friend whose father owned a beauty shop)brassy blond of my hair. But I just grabbed the one my mother used instead of getting a new one. Her hair always came out a pretty golden brown and that was what I was after. Put it in after my shower and went to bed.

Next morning, getting ready for school, the mirror showed me that the rinse had turned my hair a fire-engine red/orange and I didn't have anywhere near enough time to wash it out before I had to get the bus.

You can imagine the hilarity that ensued in classes.

[Debbi801]

29. When I was 12, I tried Sun In. It turned my hair green!!!

My hair was a dark blonde/light brown color and instead of turning a lighter blonde, It turned green. Yuck. Not sure who was more upset, me or my mother with her "What will people think?" comments.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I had my hair frosted by my neighbor in her kitchen

Funny thing is she was a licensed cosmetologist with her own shop. It was just easier to go next door than drive to her shop.

Anyway, she used the cap with the little holes to frost my hair and when she was done, all the frosted parts were hidden in the under layers. So my hair looked no different.

I had to have it cut in layers for the frosting to show. Since then, I have insisted on using the brush on frosting. No caps with holes.

[catmandu57]

9. Not really a horror story, and it's not me

but my wife colors here hair to cover up the grey, she bought this stuff once, I don't know the name brand, but, the color was called burgundy.
I guess it's supposed to be some reddish color, I swear though it turned her hair pink.
I kept asking her when she was going to spike it and punch a safety pin through her nose to go with her punk hair.
She got madder than hell "IT'S NOT PINK" she yelled at me, but she hasn't got that color again.

[SW FL Dem]

10. I have been lightening my hair for years

I usually use the same brand and one or two colors (I go a shade lighter in the summer). One time the store was out of my usual brand so I tried a different "Champagne Blonde". It turned out to be a really light Platinum Blonde. Of course I waited until after the store closed to color my hair. I had to go to work the next day looking like Marilyn Monroe - from then on, my secret was out I wasn't a natural blonde

[Maeve]

11. The store was out of my shade, so I tried another brand

When I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror, I screamed! My auburn hair was now Ronald McDonald RED! :wow:

I did get some strange looks at church the next morning (but it was right after July 4th, so I think some figured I'd gone patriotic) and I stopped at another store on the way home for my Excellance (I'm worth it, too!) and made it all better that afternoon.

Never ever looked at another brand again!

[Heidi]

12. Oh, where to start? I'm a redhead!

Hated my redhair for the first 30 years of my life and did _lots_ of funky stuff with it between the ages 18 and 30. But around 30, I started to love my hair, and swore off haircolors, perms, etc. I think I'll be "natural" forever now, come what may. :thumbsup:

[Redstone]

13. Mrs R came back from Canada once with crimson hair with orange and

white stripes after her cousin and cousin's daughter had worked her over, at one point getting her hair to actually emit smoke...I was a bit nervous at Customs that day.

Redstone

[radwriter0555]

14. I melted my hair into a bright canary yellow the day before THE INTERVIEW

to be a personal assistant to a really, really famous rock star.

There was no hiding it... and no correcting it the day of.

It took a few days to find a hairdresser who had the guts to attempt to salvage it, and $125 later, he did.

It took massive amounts of a really expensive conditioner and then a toner treatment to return it to a color found in nature. A lot had to be trimmed out as well, that was just beyond redemption.

I don't quite remember why the bleach/lift backfired. I was trying to go to a platinum white blonde... I eventually got there, I believe... then I hated it of course. I had to do the roots every 10 minutes, and it was too time consuming to maintain.

[evlbstrd]

17. Did you get that job?

You wouldn't think your hair would have hurt you in that interview.

[radwriter0555]

18. No, didn't get the job. It was before wild hair color was the thing to do.

And, strangely enough, administrative showbiz people aren't encouraged to draw attention to themselves, that's for the starz, you know.

You can't be too beautiful, too wild or too loud...

[evlbstrd]

21. Can't outshine the star.

Gotcha.

[RebelOne]

15. Well, I have been coloring my hair for many, many years.

I am blonde but have tried a lot of different shades. Once I used a platinum color, but it turned my hair blue. I had to sit in the sun for days on end to get the blue out. Than one time, I used a temporary rinse by Roux, which was called Platinum Mint. That turned my hair a mint green. Luckily, that washed out. Then another time I used a color called Pink Chiffon. I ended up with pink and blonde striped hair. Fortunately, I was able to correct that with another blonde color.

[haele]

16. Shhh...my stepdaughter...

Decided she wanted to dye her hair green earlier this year. She's going on 14 with beautiful auburn hair and it's in that "in between baby and adult" stage where it's just a bit too thick. She also has a bit of a hygiene issue, hates to wash her hair. Something from when she was living with her mother, and her tendency towards contrariness.

So, instead of food dye (bad, bad, bad!), we let her get some green professional dye when she showed us some good grades. Temporary, supposed to last only two/three weeks. (The lady at the beauty shop suggested Kool-aide as a colorant the next time we want weird colors - so long as there was no dye and there were enough highlights to her natural hair color to support it)

It turned out dark green. Hmm. Apparently, she was supposed to bleach her hair first, then dye it and set it with one of those head-eater dryers. She hated it. Then she found out that as she washed her hair, the green turned lighter with the blond highlights in her hair and it was pretty much the color she wanted. (Whoopee! now she'll wash her hair twice a week instead of twice a month!)

However, the color's lasted a good six weeks (Thanksgiving at her conservative grandfather's was very funny), now it's finally starting to fade and her roots are growing in. Though it looks like she may have screwed with her natural hair color, it's coming in browner and duller. :(

Next hair disaster to anticipate - since we managed to convince her that constant bleaching to get "she's so unusual" coloring is going to ruin her natural hair color and scalp eventually, she wants to color her tips. Rainbow colors. Bleach first, then color.

Ah well, at least you can cut the tips if things get too messy.

Haele

[Left Is Write]

19. I tried to color my hair brown once.

I've always been blonde. Once I got in my thirties, the blonde became dull and dishwatery, so I started coloring it a brighter shade of blonde. Several years ago, I got a wild hair (so to speak) to see how I would look as a brunette, so I applied a rich, brown hair color within just a few weeks of having brightened my blonde.

Blonde hair coloring contains yellow tones.

Brunette hair coloring contains blue tones.

You do the math.

[undeterred]

20. My mother gave me the rest of her hair dye to use in High School

She was going gray and dyeing it ash blonde. The color was lighter than my natural color and I liked it- but what I didn't realize at first is that it would grow out and I would have dark roots which I would have to keep dyeing. I wish I hadn't started with that crap so young- there was just no need for it.

[musette_sf]

22. all of them

Every single one of them. From 1960s Sun-In disasters to Orangutan Orange results in the 80s from my girlfriend who "knew how to color hair". From then on I have gone for professional color. The cost is more than justified when compared to the misery/guilt/angst when the results are initially viewed, and the ongoing suffering until the situation is (a) remedied and/or (b) grown out.

Some people just have the right color and texture of hair, combined with excellent motor skills as relates to self-inflicted, I mean self-performed, personal beauty services, that they can Do It Themselves and it is all happy and wonderful. I tend to orange so easily, that I'm not willing to do the research and self-experimentation to find out exactly what color blend and developer volume is right for me.

Part of home hair coloring success is also relative to what product you used and how it works on your hair. I have found through personal experience and experiences of others that Clairol products are to be avoided. Some swear by one of the Garnier varieties, others by L'Oreal (from the beauty supply store, not from the supermarket), and many have had success with Wella permanent color from the beauty supply store.

All in all I think successful home hair coloring is a combination of the right current color and texture, amount of experience, and selection of product. All that being said, I'd rather just pay someone to do it.

It has been so long since I have been in Houston that I could not tell you who to go to to fix it, should you so desire. I will tell you that I got one of my WORST professional colors at Urban Retreat and paid through the yin-yang for it. "Strawberry blonde" turned out to be "Oh, LOOOO-cy!". And I selected the place and the colorist from a "best of" hair color recommendation listing in Allure Magazine.

On edit: and a big shout-out to Melissa of Visual Image in Fremont, California!!! who does some of the best color and styling in the Bay Area!!!

[RebelOne]

32. I have been coloring my hair for the past 40 years

and I have used all products -- Clariol, Roux, L'Oreal, etc. -- and have had no problems with any of them. You just have to know what you are doing. I was also a wig stylist and have dyed and bleached wigs and hair pieces.

[musette_sf]

34. I envy you

As I said in my post, it all depends on your hair color and texture; your motor skills and experience in the subject; and the products you use.

Some products just don't work well on some people. I have known no one personally who has ever had good results with Clairol. But undoubtedly it must work well on many because they're still in business.

You have the experience, you know the products and how to use them to best advantage, and you know what to do with your own hair to make it work. Others of us have brain-damaged hair* that goes orange unless someone who knows what s/he is doing handles it.

I can do things with computers that not everyone else can do. I pay people to do my hair, and I'm able to do and fix things that other people pay people to do on their computers. It's all relative.

I envy you. I've always been hair-handicapped, but I'm not willing to put any more time and effort into it than I already have.

* on edit: I stole this phrase from Helen Gurley Brown, one of my all-time Women I Adore. No insult intended to the brain-damaged.

[LeftyMom]

23. I wanted more red in my hair

The result I got was closer to Caltrans Orange. I redid it a few days later and got the early x-files Scully haircolor I was looking for, and wore it for several years. I had fun writing "Clairol Nice and Easy #111, Natural Tawny Auburn" when forms asked for my hair color.

Eventually I stopped dying it and interestingly enough now my natural color (the dye was all gone years ago) is pretty darn close to that shade. When I was younger my hair had natural blonde highlights, but my undertones and highlights are reddish anymore. :shrug:

[LaraMN]

24. Tried to highlight it myself and turned it orange.

I had too much old dye in my hair already; you really have to grow it out or have it stripped if you're in that position, before you can highlight. I went straight to the store and bought some brown to cover over it. ugh.

[Scooter24]

25. I tried to highlight my hair once...

a few years ago...It looked simple enough. Pick a strand, apply some of the mixture to it.

Let's just say after some intense drama I ended up completely blond and slightly in shock. Well, more of an orange blond.

I was however able to salvage the style with a trip to the color studio the next day. They first corrected my blond color and then added darker highlights and tips. I came out looking like a boy-band member when all was done. lol

It took about 10 days of repeated moisturizing and conditioning my hair to get it feeling natural and not like straw.

[pitohui]

26. ho boy

a friend & i were abt to catch a plane

the friend decides before we go, he has to dye his hair, his beard, and his piece

the piece comes out looking worse than donald trump's

so he dyes it again

can you believe it?

the funny part is, we actually caught the plane, but now that i'm home i see i will have to repaint one of the bathroom walls because apparently he was really slinging that dye around & didn't have time to clean-up

[purr]

28. I decided I wanted to try being a blonde...

I have natural auburn hair with highlights. I always colored my hair one way or another and I decided that I was sick of being auburn. So I went to the store and picked up a bottle of hair bleach. Read the instructions and put it on. Let it sit for about an hour and I look in the mirror and I'm like OOH! I'm a blonde today.. So I take the little plastic cap off, rinse my hair off, then put it in a towel.

I take my hair out of the towel, brush it, and look in the mirror..

ONLY MY ROOTS COLORED!!!! So I had this bright as the sun blonde roots, and dark auburn hair the rest of the way. :rofl:

[DawgHouse]

30. These stories make me feel a little better

about the outrageous price I pay to get my hair colored. :( I'm a big ol' chicken!

[MountainLaurel]

31. Mine involves highlights

Don't try to do something that requires fairly precise timing when you're:

A: writing a research paper the day before it's due.
B: trying to cook dinner

and

c: heavily involved in watching the college basketball championship game.

Those subtle blonde highlights ended up pretty stark white.

[NMMNG]

33. My natural color is dark blonde

Once upon a time I decided to go auburn. I enjoyed it for the better part of a year then decided to go back to my natural color. From experience I knew that the best way to get my personal tone was to mix Nice and Easy's "Natural Darkest Blonde" and "Natural Lightest Brown" together, so I got one of each. Since I was going for such a drastic change I also got a special kit that claimed to strip all artificial color from the hair, leaving it prepped for new color.

I went home and used the color stripper. I had started off with rich auburn hair and ended up with whitish orange hair, much to my chagrin. While terrified, I hoped that this would be corrected by the application of the Nice and Easy. I applied the mixture of the Blonde/Light Brown coloring and left it on for the maximum time, then rinsed it off.

My hair was still that horrid whitish orange. The coloring had not taken at all. :cry: Panicked, I put on a hat and rushed to the salon to beg them to fix it. Fortunately they were able to, though with some damage to my already fragile hair.


Aye.

[MaggieSwanson]

35. Natural Instincts dark ash-colored brown

turned my medium-brown hair greenish-black the day before the State Convention, at which I was a delegate. The box said it would last 28 shampoos. I shampooed 15 times that evening, no joke - the last 2 times with laundry soap (I was waaaay beyond rational at that point.)

I slunk back to the drugstore and purchased a warm blond in a desperate 11pm attempt at hair normalcy, thinking the warm would counterract the ashiness. It came out murky red and patchy and oh, so brittle.

I wore it up for months of deep conditioning, the went back to my L'Oreal Preference.

If you know the right shade, home coloring is not too bad at all. If you screw up, it ends up costing more than a trip to the salon in the first place!

:grouphug: for all of us who've felt the pain...

[Skittles]

36. don't have one

natural blonde and no gray hair :D

[elehhhhna]

37. Update:

I found a great colorist who also fixed the cut and I haven't been this happy with my hair in YEARS! A disaster turned into a miracle, for 110 bucks. thankyou jeebus.