Hello All! Let me get down to the nitty gritty…

I’ve been dying my hair since I was 18. My natural color is a medium brown and I’ve never really loved it. I’ve been every color from blonde to dark brown to burgundy and then to black and have been ever since…well past tense…was.

Now after years of having black hair, I felt it was time for a change. I don’t have a current acting gig so I wanted to do something with a little edge. I’d seen a lot of posts with men dying their hair gray or silver. I loved the idea of that look and thought, it’s now or never. I called a local reputable salon and had an extensive conversation over the phone about my hair and what I wanted to do. She assured me this was possible and we made the appointment. Well here we go..

It’s 12:00pm and I’ve arrived promptly for my appointment with the colorist. I explained everything to him that I had already covered the day before. He assured me that it was totally doable, but it would be a lengthy process, at least two hours. I reiterated that as long as it was safe, I was ready.

Fast forward to the first bleach process.

 

It started fine. I was asked to let them know if I felt any sort of burning. I felt nothing but a slight tingling, which I was told was normal. All was good. I was then sat under a heat dryer and still nothing. After around 40 mins of waiting they proceeded to wash out the first process. Here were the results.

Wow! As you can see, what was once black was now a fiery red color. Not quite what I needed to get that gray color that I wanted to achieve. So, the stylist said we needed a second bleaching. Once again, I was assured it would be totally safe and that this was normal in removing a color like black. “Okay, you’re the professionals”, I thought. So I went in for another treatment followed by more heat and another wash..

Now after another 40 minutes, the color looked right, but I started to worry. I didn’t feel burning, but I started to feel like it was a lot of bleach in one day. Not only that, but the tingling I had felt earlier seemed to be getting stronger. I spoke up, and the stylist said not to worry, again the tingling was normal. He then said we should go ahead and wash it out to see the results. After the wash, he told me I had some more small dark spots that he needed to take care of. More??? This is now seeming like overkill. He then proceeded to mix a lighter bleach with shampoo and kept me at the sink, followed by a light gray and purple shampoo.

Well, I was finally done and ready to see the results. I was anxious and excited. I sat in front of the mirror only to see that my hair looked like it was gone! Little did I know, but my hair had all practically broken off in that last wash. I was so upset and distraught. I asked the colorist what happened and he said it happens sometimes where some hair will break off. Well this was A LOT of my hair! He proceeded to tell me that my hair was thin and probably shouldn’t have had all that process. He also said the color I wanted didn’t seem to want to take to my hair. I reminded that that I was vocal about this the entire time. All I was thinking at this moment was, “get me out of this salon now!” I was devastated.

Needless to say, after five hours at the salon, with broken and ruined hair, I did not pay for the process and was given every apology under the sun.

After I left, I drove straight home and decided the only real option was to buzz my hair completely to even out what was left. On top of all of this..the tingling I was feeling? Yeah, that was my skin burning. I was told that the tingling was normal and only if it hurts is it bad. I woke up the next day with scabs on my hairline and it took about two weeks to go away. Anyway, with all that, I’ve learned my lesson. But at the end of the day, I’ll survive. And my hair will grow back. With it being summer, it’s not terrible. It’s definitely low maintenance and feels great when it’s super hot out. And I own a lot of hats so…lol

So that’s why I’ll never bleach my hair again. I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t you research it more? Why did you let them put so much in your hair. Why? why? I guess because it was my first time doing this and I trusted what I thought were professionals. My advice for anyone looking to do this? Do your homework. Don’t just trust the person behind the chair. Read up on the do’s and don’ts of bleach. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and all of your locks too.

I’ll leave you here with some positivity in self love. Until next time.

Peace,

P