Losing My Religion

One thing I've always been very adamant about is professional hair care. I'll eat government cheese before I do my own hair at home. And at times, I've come close to that. Although I've never qualified for the government cheese program, but you get the point.

Well, let's just say that you get spoiled when one person does your hair for over a decade! She knows what you want even when you don't articulate it very well. And given how professional she was, you didn't deal with gum smacking and phone talking and general nonsense. When I went home last month, I tried to make an appointment, but she had the gall to be on vacation!

When we moved, I found someone to do my hair. While I don't get it cut regularly, I do color it like clockwork, every 5 weeks because of my gray hair. So I found someone who I was happy with how she colored my hair. She never really cut it well though. And I watched her give many people mullets, so I avoided her cutting it at all cost. This resulted in long, blah hair for me. Then things got weird and she and her girlfriend started semi-stalking me. So I had to bolt from that situation.

I tried someone else and while she could cut my hair, I wasn't happy with the color or the salon environment. I went to her a couple of times thinking that it would work out and I'd be happy with it. Nope. She asked me if I'd had the baby when I was 8 months pregnant and had a huge belly. I took it in stride, but that combined with her starting to call me at home made me say no to that situation as well! What is with me and stalking hair people?

By the time I had the baby, it was time for a new color but it was totally not a priority. Three weeks after I'd had the baby, I brushed my hair and almost passed out. I had over 3 inches of roots. That wasn't even the horrible part. The horrible part about it was that the roots were WHITE! My hair up front is solid gray! So I bought a box color to just match my base color and I'll worry about highlights later.

The box color was good, just a little dark for me personally without highlights. But with a 3 week old, who cares? Right? It worked for $5! Well, 2 weeks later, the stubborn gray around the front of my face was peeking out. So I bought another box. This time, I thought I'd try one shade lighter and a slightly warmer color. Well, I sort of had an orange halo around my face where it covered gray.

Once again, not happy with the color but the gray was covered. And at least I'm not spending $100+ and 4 hours at a salon to be unsatisfied with my color, right? This weekend, I went in search of another color.... trying to go lighter but be less orange. Now, for the record, I'm not trying to go 10 shades lighter than my natural color. That will definitely give you orange hair. I'm talking ONE shade lighter... which the box says you can do....

Anyway, I found a kit that had an all over color and stuff for highlights in a coordinating color. SCORE! I did the all over color on Monday night. I am happy with the color. It is not orange. But I definitely need highlights to give my hair some dimension and not look so flat. Last night I did the highlights. You paint the stuff on on the pieces where you want it.

I did that. It looks like crap. Luckily it's so subtle that you can't tell I did it. Except for one place above my ear that came out REALLY blonde at the roots but nowhere else... luckily it's not the top layer of my hair. And it's near a stubborn gray spot... so it will be white in 2 weeks anyway.

Total cost of all these hair experiments - $24. I'm still WAY ahead of the money game vs. a professional and with the same results I was getting from them. Can anyone recommend a fabulous color person in the state of Oklahoma? I'll travel to the panhandle if I can get good results with the person not stalking me afterwards!