How to Fix Hair dye gone wrong

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First, I’ll backtrack. On July 8th I woke up fed up and decided it was time to give myself a makeover. I painted my nails, coated myself in my favorite self-tanner, and brought two bottles of hair dye. It was time to get my sh*t together.

Now keep in mind I haven’t dyed my own hair since high school, but I figured that anything would be better than 6 inches of black roots. I tore open the box of “natural blonde hair dye”, read the instructions, put on the gloves, and went for it. The chemical aroma brought me back to my adolescence. Regardless, I scrubbed the dye through each strand and patiently waited for Alexa to tell me that my timer was up. 25 long minutes later, I hopped in the shower and started to blow dry my hair. It had a red tint but I didn’t think twice as it was still damp.

After it was fully dry, the red tint was still there. In fact, my hair looked identical to Bluebelle’s (our cocker spaniel). It was a shiny red root (aka nothing like the bloody box). I ran to CVS, picked up clarifying shampoo, and was optimistic that it would wash out. Fast forward a few weeks and the red root was still there. I did some research and booked a same-day appointment at a local hair salon for one process color.

If you’ve read my blog for a while (or follow me on Instagram) you know that I’m a huge believer in intuition. We walked in and the guy at the front turned us away and said to book an appointment without Aspen because kids weren’t allowed in the salon. I explained that I was a single mum and that Aspen was always with me, and a different stylist approached offering for us to sit outside for them to color correct my hair. In a tent, In a garden, In 90 degree heat. I said yes and met with a hairstylist, who we will call “Megan”. Megan was sweet, much nicer than the guy at the front and I showed her some screenshots of the look and color that I was going for. Think Blake Lively, Margot Robbie etc. NOW before I go any further, usually if a guy was that rude to me, I would have seen it as a sign and turned around right away – but I was desperate for my hair to be fixed (hence booking a same-day appointment at a random hole-in-the-wall salon).

Getting my hair dyed and processed in a tent

Megan glimpsed at the photos on my phone and told me that what I wanted was a full head of highlights and not a single process. conveniently this would cost me an additional $140 (which wasn’t mentioned). Again, I contemplated turning around – but instead (AND I wholeheartedly regret this) I agreed and continued to sit under the tent, in the plastic chair with a view of a rat-trap while she mixed up highlights.

The process took 3 hours and cost $300 (without a blowout) so I left the salon with soaking wet hair and an angry 6-year-old. Aspen was bored and bribed with a happy meal to be a good boy but as soon as we got to the car, I could tell my hair was wrong. I noticed that the orange was still there, just broken up with platinum blonde highlights. The word platinum was never mentioned, nor was a single strand of platinum in the photos I had shown.

I rushed home, dug out my blowdryer, and looked in the mirror. I no longer had red roots, it was worse. I had stripy roots. I looked like a tiger. I spent about 2 hours on Google looking for a solution before texting the stylist about how unhappy I was. She said I could come in at 330 the next day and I dragged Aspen back to the tent, in the garden of the “hair salon”. Megan was confused as to why I wasn’t happy. She didn’t see anything wrong with what she had done to my hair (aka ruin it). And said that she will add a few more highlights and put a toner on it so that it’s not as ashy. Once she was done, I looked in the mirror (once again) with my hair soaking wet and saw the stripes. It was time to go home and give up. I could feel how brittle and weak my soaking wet hair was. Not only was it stripy, but it was now bleached and brittle. There were bug bites all over my arms and legs from where we had to sit outside for hours. Oh, how I wish I could rewind to 2 days ago and take back my red roots. Not to mention that it cost me $300 for terrible service, color, AND experience.

I ate my emotions for 48 hours straight and googled how to fix stripy highlights and damaged hair. Here are my top 5 products that I have purchased (so far) to help restore my brittle (not blonde) hair: