Hair Coloring

[lindatat]

Agree with many of the other "gulls" about drugstore color, especially Donna's remark about brassiness. When I was in my early 20's, I colored my hair by myself and the maintenance was awful. After a few weeks, the roots were coming in and I was terrible at touch-ups and would find myself applying color to the full head of hair. But I was young and broke and it was all I could afford. One day I got tired of the upkeep, and the damage, so I got my hair cut ultra short, thus cutting out all the color and going back to my natural dishwater blonde. 20 or so years later, I have gone back to long hair and been fortunate enough that I haven't gone gray, but can't stand the dullness of my natural color. I splurge on very subtle salon highlights a few times a year and find that it makes enough of a difference to brighten up my boring color, but doesn't require frequent touch-ups the way all over color does.

And I totally agree with Mermaid about the trial and error of finding a hairdresser you like as far as the cuts are concerned. For years I spent big bucks on haircuts at some of the more well-known "fancy" salons here in the Chicago area. One day I just happened to ask a neighbor where she got her hair cut and she recommend a beauty shop that was right on my way home from work in a little strip mall. I had never noticed it before, but it was so convenient I decided to give her stylist a try and I'm really happy with her!

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

I may have to retire from my business soon, just to make time for all the maintenance (and I'm not just talking about the beauty regime). Is this a drag for anyone else or am I the only middle-aged woman on the Board?

You know you're not girl! I'm so not used to having to do all this maintenence stuff and I don't usually. I was always au naturalle but it gets tougher every day.

 

[CastlesOfSand]

You know you're not girl! I'm so not used to having to do all this maintenence stuff and I don't usually. I was always au naturalle but it gets tougher every day.

I think I might be due for a little maintenence ASAP! Just a little.....

 

[Cil]

The solution for me was to move away from a flat color and have them weave highlights into my natural color, which includes some gray. The result is more natural looking color, much healthier hair with less frizzled highlights areas, and I can wait twice as long to have a "tune-up" because the weaving is more forgiving of roots and gray. That allows more time for the myriad of other maintenance appointments...sigh.

This is what I do. I have dishwater dark blonde hair.
I was so comfortable with my Denver lady, she did everything just how I liked it. ::sigh::
These days I drive to Apalach. She does cut it *awfully* short, but the color is good; I had highlights/lowlights done in January and just had it done again this month, I'll probably do it again in September or October.

Doing it yourself is not worth it; I'll never do that again.

I may have to retire from my business soon, just to make time for all the maintenance (and I'm not just talking about the beauty regime). Is this a drag for anyone else or am I the only middle-aged woman on the Board?

You're not alone.
I never used to do anything! It's a different world now. You young'ns out there, enjoy it now! ;-)

 

[Beachlover2]

Is this a drag for anyone else or am I the only middle-aged woman on the Board?

Middle-aged????? Only if I plan on living to 100.!!!!!!!!

 

[Beach Runner]

Just like Johnrudy, I've been coloring my hair blonde since I was 14 or 15. I used drugstore stuff until I got established in my career and could afford salon color. Highlighting worked great until the gray started coming in a couple of years ago, and then there were three colors instead of two (my natural light brown and the blonde highlights). That's when my colorist started a using a glaze. But I get rooty really fast now, and it's time-consuming and expensive to drive to Atlanta so often to get it colored.

But you all have convinced me that color from a drugstore is not the way to go. And from my daughter's mistake with do-it-yourself hair color last summer, I know that corrective color can be expensive. I paid $360 plus tip to get hers corrected, and it took all day long for them to fix it.

Guess I'll make an appointment right now. I'm rooty. Thanks to you all for the advice.

 

[Cil]

Middle-aged????? Only if I plan on living to 100.!!!!!!!!

I resemble that remark.
I tell ya, getting old isn't for sissies.;-)

Beach Runner, your mileage may vary, but when my mom started going "tri-color," that's when she quit coloring her hair at all, and I've had similar thoughts. (It was kinda funny with my mom, because she had an identical twin who never did quit coloring her hair, seeing them together was a bit of a giggle.)

Anyway, I have bits of pure white hair coming in, and the stylist carefully covered it up with lowlights. I think next time I'll tell her not to bother.
Maybe I'll just highlight less and less and then finally wean myself of doing it at all.

 

[Rudyjohn]

I resemble that remark.
I tell ya, getting old isn't for sissies.;-)

Beach Runner, your mileage may vary, but when my mom started going "tri-color," that's when she quit coloring her hair at all, and I've had similar thoughts. (It was kinda funny with my mom, because she had an identical twin who never did quit coloring her hair, seeing them together was a bit of a giggle.)

Anyway, I have bits of pure white hair coming in, and the stylist carefully covered it up with lowlights. I think next time I'll tell her not to bother.
Maybe I'll just highlight less and less and then finally wean myself of doing it at all.

I'm using my gray (more like silver) to my advantage. The highlighing works out well with the silver.

 

[kathydwells]

I was blessed with natural blonde hair. I have never had to color it, I know I am lucky. I have people, including hair stylists that argue with me because they think I color my hair and they don't believe me. I will never forget one time when I was in my 30's I went to get a perm. The girl that was going to do my hair asked me what kind of color I used. I told her I didn't color my hair. She didn't believe me and told me she could not give me a perm unless she knew what kind of color I used. I told her again that I didn't color my hair. She said she would have to do some kind of "test" on my hair to see if it was colored. She did the test and came back and told me "you're right, I am sorry, but we usually don't see this kind of "natural color". I was so pissed that she argued with me about it. Like I am gonna lie about coloring my hair!!! I guess some people do. I am not saying that I won't ever color it. I will be 45 in September and I am sure eventually the gray will start to show up. However, my daddy will be 75 in October and his hair is still just as blonde as it ever was. The only gray he has is in his beard. Perhaps I got those good genes. My twin's hair is about 2 shades blonder than mine and everyone thinks she colors hers as well.

 

[Beach Runner]

My gray is coming in that ugly gray color and is wirey and curly (my non-gray hair was straight and light brown). I wasn't lucky enough to inherit my mom's gray hair which is stark white and straight and absolutely beautiful. So I'm going to keep coloring it (and using a flat iron on the curly stuff). BTW my hair is blonder now than in this picture. I decided I liked it a little blonder.

BTW I hate you Darlene for having natural blonde hair! (Just kidding).