I’m such the wannabe bad ass. I got sick of seeing my roots show through the red chunky streaks. It was time for a repair job. Unfortunately, the last time I had dyed my hair myself, I was a freshman in college. Yovanni helped me apply the “red currant” Natural Instincts. I remember I was supposed to leave it in for like 20 minutes. Instead, I did an hour. No fucking change whatsoever. Was a huge disappointment.

So this time, I anticipated similar problems. The lady at the store recommended the dark brown, even though my natural color was black. Fine, whatever. So I left it in for maybe 35 minutes. Turns out 35 was way too long. The result? Initially, I was pleasantly surprised by the uniform color and wonderful luster. But after I dried my hair, I could see, this “dark brown” was like goth black. It was weird: the hair had shine but something just looked off. But what could I do? The dye was permanent. No turning back.

The next day, I was stunned: many of the guys at work (there are only three women) noticed. Not in any flattering kind of way, but whatever. Who would have expected any comment at all, particularly since no one said a thing when I’d gone to work with uneven blond/orange chunks in January. My friend Derek was horrified. Gotta give it to him for being brutally honest, “OMG! What did you do to your hair? It’s so unnatural!” Uh hello, newsflash: did you think random red highlights was natural? Please. After his comment, I starting feeling a bit self-conscious. What if the strong black washed me out? I dunno. But when I got home and looked, it was fine. Yes, very obviously different, but black was black. As a joke, I considered punking it all out– wearing all black and putting on the combat boots, thumb rings, nose rings, and doing the black eyeliner. In the end, I was too lazy for it. Oh well, the take away lesson here? Going darker with permanent color works very well. Lighter– maybe not so well, but darker, watch the process time.

Hmm, I can really see myself getting hooked with hair coloring… so much easier than wardrobe or body changes.