HAIR DIARIES

Our story begins with a routine check of Living Social/Groupon for any awesome deals. Lo and behold there was an awesome hair deal! $25 for cut and full color? Unheard of. Granted it was from a Senior Stylist at a beauty school, but still- I was reassured they would do just fine with teacher supervision. 

I looked up reviews and consulted with my awesome cosmetologist sister-in-law Carly, and then purchased the deal.

Later that day I stopped by the salon to make my appointment instead of calling, so that I could show them my hair. 

I cannot tell you how many times I've told a stylist over the phone that I have a lot of thick hair and have them nod and say "mmhmm". They've heard women say that a million times I'm sure, but with me, they just don't get it. And then they are seriously irritated that my appointment is running an hour or so over schedule because they didn't believe me! 

Dear hair people, when I say I have a lot of hair, I'm NOT "bragging"! It's a warning!

So anyway, I went to the salon and they said they could do it and scheduled me for the next day and I was so happy/excited! 

I arrived at the salon the next day and met my stylist and the teacher who told me they'd do an extraction to pull the majority of the dark color from my hair, and that I'd come back later in the week to put the color in. Then my stylist (let's call her B) asked whether to use this extractor or that extractor and the teacher was like "it doesn't really matter, that one smells worse but does this, and this one blah blah but does this". I wasn't really paying attention honestly. But remember that the one she ended up using was the one the teacher said smelled worse. 

B began putting the extractor in my hair. Now normally when I get my hair done, or really anything done/waxed/massaged/painted for that matter, the person doing it is very conversational! Not B. At all. 

I tried starting a conversation several times, and she just was not having it! So we mostly sat in awkward silence. 

After my mane was fully saturated with the extractor and I sat under the dryer for half an hour, B washed my hair.

IT WAS SO PAINFUL! 

Not for my scalp or hair or anything, but for my neck! Those sinks are scary uncomfortable. Seriously the whole time I was just thinking "she's going to innocently turn my head to scrub shampoo in it and my neck will snap. My neck is going to snap here, this is where I will die, I just know it"

Finally, after washing my hair 5 times, she finished and said "um I'll meet you back at the chair" and I was thinking "um where are you going?". So I ambled on over, thoroughly surprised my weakened, bruised, neck supported the weight of my dripping wet hair. 

B came over and began drying my hair. During this time I kept looking at my reflection and the many colors that my hair had become: bright blonde at the roots, fading into an orangey dark blonde, and then a brassy red-brown.... Why.

B told me my hair would be an orangey shade due to the extractor, so I wasn't too concerned about that. Yet when she was done drying it, I realized I make a pretty ugly ginger. And I did NOT want to go anywhere in public. 

And then can you believe what happened next? B asked if I wanted her to flat iron my hair, or if I just wanted to put it up.  

...

If I could make that ellipses any bigger, I would. 

B graciously flat ironed my hair. Points to her. 

Now you may be thinking, "Haleigh, you sound like such a snob right now!" Yes, maybe. But what would you think if your stylist was incredibly awkward/anti-social and then turned your hair bright orange? Because my thought process was, if my hair color is going to look stupid, at least the smooth, flat-ironed texture will make up for that somewhat. 

B finished and then we scheduled my appointment to put color in. And then I braved the walk to the car. 

This is what I looked like en route to my appointment:

And this is what I looked like driving away from the appointment: (note the worried facial expression)

What color do you call that? Pathetic fire ombre attempt?? It definitely clashes with my rose-gold shades.

At home-indoor lighting (sorry not the best picture)

"Le Pouty Ariel Reject"

It was seriously that orange/red.

Some people can pull off scarlet locks beautifully, and then there's me. 

Although, my dad was completely in love with my red hair, to say the least. And while it was kind of cool in a way to match my dad's and brother's hair color, this was definitely not going to stay.

The next day my hair was still quite orange (B said the orange would darken over the next 24 hours or so). And then I discovered that there was a small chunk of hair near the nape of my neck that didn't get washed by B at all! 

So I decided to wash it that night (after all, the next day was Sunday, and I couldn't have nasty orange hair for church!)

Remember when the teacher said the extractor B used smelled worse? 

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

The second one of my hairs got wet the most horrendous scent I have ever had the displeasure of smelling filled the bathroom. 

I am NOT being dramatic here. 

My hair REEKED of the most unimaginably horrific fart ever. It smelled like my cat took a dump in the shower with me. I was so caught off guard by the stench that I worried for a second that perhaps there was a tragic plumbing accident and that somehow raw sewage was coming out of the shower head. 

I was gagging uncontrollably as I shampooed my hair 3 times, and still the smell persisted. 

It was at this point that I lost it. 

I tolerated the anti-social, snobby stylist.

I tolerated the orange hair.

I tolerated the fact that I'd have to pay for color AGAIN in a few days.

But this. 

This was too much. 

Poor Zach was completely beside himself when I came into the room after the shower and threw myself onto the bed whilst sobbing hysterically. 

And then the stench hit him too. 

Kudos to him for dealing with it while comforting me. 

I could hardly sleep that night for every time I moved slightly, I'd get a whiff of my hair, and I'd become so nauseated. 

I desperately looked up if this was normal, and was terrified to find a post of a girl who had this put in her hair, and it still smelled like it 2 months later!!

A few posts said the scent goes away when the hair dries, and altogether when a coloring agent is put in the hair. 

So I was somewhat calmed.

But the smell was so strong that when my brothers went into the hall the next morning they thought the cats must have pooped like right outside their door. 

There was no way I could go to church. 

When my hair finally dried it looked like this:

Quite the color difference, right?

I've just been a little chameleon the past week!

So here we are on Wednesday, the day I'll see some blonde in my life again. I was sooooo so nervous for my appointment! The teacher came over and said I could either destroy my hair by bleaching it to achieve the blonde, or I could gradually go back to full blonde by applying full highlights. So I chose the gradual route. However, I've always been apprehensive about highlights because I feel a lot of times that they turn out stripey in a salon. (except when Gary dyed my hair back to blonde the first time I went dark, he did AMAZING and it didn't look stripey!) But I figured I'd take the risk and save my hair.
I sat in the chair and just tuned out (B still wasn't talkative).
It took over 3 HOURS to put all the foil in my hair. 3 hours. Can you believe that??? I was so sick of it, and so was B. But she was super sweet about it taking so long!
Oh and look how even more dark it became. *facepalm*

So cute, right? The foils got SO hot. But anyway she finally washed my hair and dried it and all the other stylists were like "you did an amazing foil job!" "that looks soo good B!" "wow and her hair was that dark when she came in?!" so I was getting pretty excited thinking that it turned out really well!
Which it did, thank you B!
But it was just very very stripey.
When I got home I curled it to make the stripes less noticeable.

Please excuse my brothers' dirty bathroom...
Look at that stripe-age!! But the blonde parts look good!

I guess I'm just impatient to be totally back to normal again, so I'm anxiously waiting for when I can dye the rest of my hair!
But for now, I'm a whole lot blonder!

The quality of these photos is so horrible! :/

Last one! Although it looks reddish here. It's not in real life.

Moral of the story: STAY NATURAL!!!