How NOT to Color Your Hair: My Journey to Becoming a Redhead

Hey, y'all! This post is going to be just a bit more... random... than usual. It's not really a review or a challenge or even a get to know me. I'm going to be telling you about the absolute WORST hair dye experience I've ever had. Seriously, never EVER do this to your hair.

Before college, I'd never colored my hair. It was just this color:

Me, in either my junior or senior year of HS

Then, in October of my freshman year, I really wanted to put some red in my hair. I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do for sure, but I ended up coloring the tips of my bangs red.

Thanksgiving break freshman year...

Then, after my Christmas break, I cut my bangs shorter and realized that if I just did the tips again, I would only have the tiniest red left. So, I decided to do all of my bangs red...

Febuary-ish, freshman year.

...which I kept throughout the rest of my freshman year and the summer. Then, not too far into my sophomore year, I got bored. I decided to amp it up a bit. I decided to color my tips as well, but rather than just put the red dye on my natural color, I decided to bleach it first to get a more vibrant color.

SUCH a good look for me...

So then came the red hair color, and it actually turned out really nicely!

Seriously, I LOVED this color- even when it started to fade to orangey red. 

ALL THE SELFIES!

My parents, unfortunately, did not love this color, and told me that it had to be gone when I came home for thanksgiving. I could keep the bangs as long as I got rid of the tips. I wasn't too terribly upset to lose the tips, since by that point they were almost completely orange. It was, however, a bit of a struggle to get rid of them. I tried Color Oops, but that didn't work. Eventually, I ended up coloring my entire head (sans bangs) a dark brown, and then, for myself, I had a couple inches cut off.

Honestly, I actually ended up really liking this color. I was really glad to get a hair cut, and the single pop of red was great. Now, we approach the point of this post... my journey to becoming a redhead.

I've always kinda wanted to be a redhead. I'm super pale with pinky undertones, and my mom says I totally missed my calling to be a redhead. I've wanted to go auburn for a really long time- even back in high school. Early January, I decided to go for it. My bangs were growing out and fading to orange again, and my dark brown was fading a bit to reveal the remnants of my red tips, so I figured it would be the best time. My roommate was wanting to color her hair as well, so we went together and got color. We each got Garnier's Olia, because a friend of ours really likes that brand. She went for a dark brown, however.

I got the color shown above, and around 2 in the afternoon, my roommate and I began coloring our hair. We both left it on for the right amount of time and then applied the conditioner, rinsed it out, and dried our hair. I was SO confused. My hair appeared to be literally the EXACT same color it had been before on my entire head except for right at the roots at my part. That hair was somewhere between my dark brown and the color on the box. Clearly, something went wrong. What, I'm not sure. But there was a definite problem. Anyway, I thought about it a bit and decided that the best way to get everything to the same color was to bleach it and then apply the color I wanted. So, I went back and got these:

I was extremely wary of repurchasing the Olia 6.60 because of the poor results the first time, so I went with the Garnier Nutrisse foam. I used Splat's hair dye for both my bright red and for bleaching my tips, so I knew it would get good results. So, first I bleached my hair...

Overall it turned out pretty well but I was really concerned about the bangs because they never totally stopped being red. So then, I continued on with the light intense auburn color, but it didn't exactly turn out as expected...

Oops...

Bright, bright red? That's definitely not what the box said it would look like when used on blonde hair! Anyway, I looked at it for a while, and had done SO much coloring on my hair that I thought about just leaving it. I like bright red, and even though it totally wasn't what I was going for, I actually thought I could rock the red. And then, my roommate got back from dinner and we noticed some problems...

AHHH! Everything seemed like it was the same color, but all of this was lying underneath! And obviously some of it didn't even get the blonde! It's so terrible! Good thing I didn't decide to rock the red! Anyway, we headed back to the drugstore to buy MORE hair color, and this time I got:

I was still a bit worried about using Olia, but since my roommate's worked fine, I decided to go for it. I also decided it was best to go for a reddish brown rather than a brownish red. I figured there was enough red already in my hair. I have to admit, it was super awkward walking into the drugstore with bright red hair. So, one more color later, it was finally over. My hair ended up a single color, and everyone's happy. 

Seriously, that's the biggest struggle I've ever had while coloring my hair, and I'm legitimately surprised that my hair didn't fall out. I colored it FOUR times in a single day, all permanent. As the title suggests, this is how NOT to color your hair. Never, ever, ever do this.

Anyway, I hope you liked this totally random story about my usually boring life. I've told it so many times to amused friends that I figured the internet would appreciate it as well. Needless to say, I'm staying away from hair color for a little while! Let me know your crazy hair color stories in the comments! If you enjoy my posts, I'd love it if you would subscribe/ follow, so that I know you like what I'm doing. Thanks, y'all!