Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Hair That Would Not Dye

I just got done dying my hair the exact same color for the three hundredth time in a row. That is not to say that I picked a hair dye that was the same color as my natural hair-- in fact, I picked something called "Caramel Latte," which promised to give me shiny light brown hair with reddish undertones. Instead, my hair is a shade I like to call "No One Pay Attention to Me Brown"-- still medium brown, no reddish undertones, with the dull finish and wispy flyaways of a homeless street preacher.

This is the same color I got when I tried Dark Mocha, Camel (which was a men's hair dye, not that that has anything to do with why it didn't work, but it might explain why it is the only one not named after food), Butterscotch Dream, and Espresso.

In fact, the last hair dye I can remember that actually changed the color of my hair in a noticeable way (other than those effing AWESOME highlights that I got from Pen during the season finale of the first season of The Apprentice) is one called Copper Penny, which turned my hair a seasick version of Ronald McDonald Red, thus highlighting the weird green undertone of my skin, and making me look like a sitcom star on a television with a color imbalance.

Now obviously, I don't stray too far from my natural hair color, mostly due to the Copper Penny incident (although just to let you know how fashion backward I was in college? I actually dyed it that color three times). I would never go platinum blonde (a color that I don't think works for Claire on ANTM, by the way), or black (which I also did once, in high school-- apparently, brown is the only hair color that WILL mask the alien green undertone of my skin). But I figure, come on, there is a DIFFERENCE between dark brown and light brown, or even dark blond, which I have also tried. But my hair is apparently like network TV-- you get red, black or brown, not the delicate shades in between. In short, I wanted my hair to be VH1-- it came out CBS.

3 pipers piping:

Frisby said...

My friend Cory is willfully ignorant of color subtleties. He grew up with eight colors in his box of crayons and, by gum, that's all anyone needs.

I mention this because it seems a common attitude among men, so while I'm not surprised that men's hair dye eschews food names (heh heh, I said "chews food"), I am a little taken aback that they have any nuance at all. I would have expected "brown," or perhaps a daring "light brown." Having no hair to color, I never bothered to check them out.

Full Disclosure: I was a sixty-four Crayola kid, so I know the difference between green-yellow and yellow-green. (Are either of those present in your skin?)

ashley said...

Perhaps it's time to go pro? I mean, I know I am a HairColorholic if there ever was one, and I simply must splurge on the goodness every six weeks or so. But I found that my hair stopped having "shades" when I was coloring it myself. Whereas, a good colorist can put in the multi-tonal highlighted gorgeousness that you're looking for.

penelope said...

I gave you highlights?! Omg, how did I forget this?

At least it didn't come out... Nickelodeon?

Um, so what do we think about Dominique on Top Model. I think I hate her way more than Fatima.