Friends don't let friends make Bad Choices

I propose a 24 hour waiting period on the sale of permanent hair dye, and it should require the signature of a reliable friend who will not allow you to choose a stupid color.

I'm not generally one to color my hair, but for some reason it seemed like a great idea yesterday.  Yeah.  Great like sticking a fork in an outlet.

I decided that I wanted to add red to my brown hair so I chose Revlon ColorSilk 49 - Auburn Brown.   Since my hair is dark brown, I thought the red would be a bit more subtle than shown on the box, since the samples on the back were for blonde and light brown hair.  This dye is not supposed to lighten hair, it adds darker pigments.

What happened to my head did not resemble the picture on the box.  There were solid streaks of red and chunks of dark brown.  It did not have the look of intentional multi-color hair.  It looked like I mixed Kool-Aid and shoe polish in a toilet, shoved my head in, and flushed.

This morning, I had to make the walk of shame back to Walgreens and I picked up a box of Color Oops:

It says that it removes hair dye by shrinking the pigments so that you can wash it out.  It is not a bleach.  You put the solution on your head for 20 minutes, then spend another 20-30 minutes of shampooing and rinsing.  They stress that rinsing for a long, long time is essential.  I used up all of the hot water by the time I was done.

The good news is, my hair is no longer full of bright red and dark brown stripes.  Everything seems to be evened out.  It also doesn't seem to be damaged by the process.  A little dry from all the washing, but nothing some good conditioner can't handle.

The not-quite-so-good news is that despite the fact that neither product was meant to lighten hair, I somehow have lighter hair.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and would spend hours at the pool.  The sun would lighten my hair and give it a reddish cast.   I can live with this.  If it looks funny as it starts to grow, I'll have it dyed darker at a proper salon.

BEFORE

AFTER

UPDATE!  My hair darkened overnight.  This morning, it was almost exactly the same as before this whole mess began.  It has just a hint of red in it, which is what I wanted all along. I don't know why or how it happened, but I'm happy about it.

The day AFTER after!