I was dyeing my hair last night, and was remembering a hair dye disaster I had a few years back. For several years I’ve been dyeing my hair a few shades lighter, and it pretty much looks exactly the same every time I do it (even if I use a different brand).

One time I dyed my hair, and instead of it getting lighter, it turned a horribly dark drab brown. I was so confused, and then I realized the hair dye bottle has a number on it, which is supposed to correspond with the number on the box. It turns out the numbers didn’t match up, so I ended up using a totally different color. It wasn’t exactly the end of the world, since I still had hair, and it was just boring and unattractive looking on me (since it totally accentuated my hair loss). And it didn’t look as bad as when I tried to give myself blue highlights in college, and they turned out puke green.

Anyway, I called the L’Oreal number on the box to see if there was any sort of remedy, and they sent me some free shampoo and conditioner. If I recall correctly, they also sent me a gift certificate to a salon to get my hair fixed, but since I’m afraid of going to hair salons, I didn’t go. Actually, I would have loved to get a free salon dye job, but I didn’t want to have to re-dye my hair in the same week, since I didn’t want to hurt my hair loss-prone hair anymore than necessary. I just lived with the dark hair, and then it got a bit lighter on its own after a month or two.

Always check that the number on the box matches the number on the bottle!
Right after my “incident” I noticed L’Oreal and the other hair dye companies started putting little seals on the box packaging. I’m sure this helps dissuade people from opening up the boxes and messing with them, but always make sure to check that the numbers match up, just in case! I have had the same problem with makeup being the wrong shade when I open up the box at home, but that’s not as big of a deal.

Do you have any hair dye horror stories?