After several weeks of debating and several coin tosses, I decided to return to the blonde look. So today I headed back to New Orleans for an 11 AM hair appointment. Four hours later, my hair had been bleached four times, my natural roots were blindingly white, my scalp was burning with excrutiating pain from exposure to far too many chemicals, and the rest of my hair was still bright red.
Okay, so in the last 6 months, here is what I have learned:
1. Natural reheads are the luckiest people on earth.
2. Artificially red hair is extremely high-maintenance.
3. Natural blondes are pretty damn lucky too, provided they don't do something irreversible to it.
4. Red hair dye should come with a big warning: Attention! You are about to alter your appearance for the rest of your life. Unless you want black hair after this, and even that will be difficult.
It's actually going to be okay - the red faded a little, and Denise dyed the roots to match the lighter red. In 3 weeks we will bleach it again. We will also add strawberry-blonde highlights, and very soon I will have worked my way up to being a full-fledged blonde again.
But oh my Lord, you would not believe the pain I was in by noon. I had no idea pain of that nature existed. There are a few scabs on my scalp, no joke, and I have to put some moisturizing crap on my hair every day to keep it from falling out. If I'd had any idea reverting from red to blonde would be this difficult, I would have never started this hair color game.
nicole: 19-year-old LSU sophomore. biochemistry, pre-med. native new orleanian. starbucks barista. borderline alcoholic. addicted to facebook, red bull and vodka, and college football. a little neurotic, extremely indecisive, and often irresponsible.
