While I was doing my henna hair experiment this past weekend, I remembered the one time (thankfully VERY long ago) when I’d gone completely blonde. Yep. I went from being a brunette to a blonde in 45 minutes flat! Definitely made me learn to appreciate my natural brown color!!
When I was younger, I occasionally decided to highlight my hair… summer was always a good time for it. Lemon juice was originally what I used, until the SunIn hair lightener hit store shelvesr (lemon in a bottle)!
Then, in spite of all my girlfriend’s warnings about not doing my own hair (she’s been a hair stylist since our senior year in high school), I decided to use a box of chemical dye to “lighten my hair”. I figured it would be faster than SunIn.
I put the stuff on my hair, then went to work on my computer… BAD. IDEA.
Note: NEVER put lightener in your hair and then start doing stuff on your computer!!
It was supposed to be on my hair for 20 minutes. I remembered about 45 minutes later. I ran to the bathroom to wash it out, but by then it was too late… I was a blonde. And I’m not talking dishwater blonde. I’m talking shades of blonde to white!!
I called 1-800-Clairol Help Me and explained to the nice lady on the phone what I’d done. The gal told me I was lucky that I didn’t completely fry my hair and have it breaking off instead of just super light. She suggested a color I could use to “darken” it up. She said it should change it to a darker blonde.
No no no. You don’t understand. I’m a brunette. I have to go to work on Monday. I need to be a brunette before then!
I got off the phone in a panic and called my girlfriend. I explained to her the stupid move I’d made and begged for help. I was even willing to listen to any and all of the “I told you so”s she could possibly come up with!!
Long story short, she helped me get back to being a brunette, albeit a bit lighter than usual… but brunette all the same.
That was the first and only time I ever used a chemical lightener on my hair. It took nearly three years to completely grow out and get rid of all the damaged hair!!
Have you ever had an “oops” hair moment? Brunette to blonde? Blonde to green maybe? Let me know in the comments!
Take care,
Debi aka @GenXBrat
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