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?
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April 20th, 2009 at 10:59 am
The main hair dye horror story I have is I’m a hair dye addict, that started in 1999. I have dyed my hair every natural hair color known to man,woman and child. I have used every brand too,and today I have settled down to just dyeing it from dark ash blonde to medium ash brown,no darker than that since my eyes are a blue-grey and my skin face is pale complexion. I did in the far past used to bleach it and it was so damaged it would be a nappy straw like mess that would be part strawberry blonde with platinum blonde roots. I stay far away from bleach and not into light blonde hair anymore or dark browns and black. I never liked red hair on me and hated it when I had red highlights or when the bleach only lightened my hair to that shade. I did one time use the streaking hair dye that gives you streaked highlights that go on pink or blue but colors it a blonde or light golden brown. Once I did it it turned my strands pink! i had dark blonde hair with rosy pink stripes! I had to color it a light brown shade,which helped rid the pink. Horrorifying.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:19 am
LOL, I give you props for sticking with the hair color as long as you did. I have had several hair dye disasters myself and also while helping others with theirs. Although I can cut hair, I totally suck at dyeing hair. Particularly at bleaching and highlights. Once in high school I died my hair a dark ash brown but it came out gothic black. I hated it so much that I went to the store to try to dye it a lighter color but it made it darker. I freaked out and a friend told me to bleach it with ammonia so I poured ammonia from under the counter on my hair thinking that was what she meant and I think I even tried clorox bleach (I had no clue what she was talking about at the time). After all this I was teary eyed cause my hair was a fried mess. I went to a salon at the mall with some money I saved from working part time and wanted to get my hair color corrected. The stylist assured me it wouldn’t cost me more than 60 dollars but when it was time to pay the bill was 100 dollars! The manager of the salon tried to accuse me of stealing their services. I called my parents crying to help me out. That was the first and last visit to Regis. My hair was completely fried that I had to cut off most of hair but instead of learning my lesson I ended up with a bald spot from dyeing my hair a few years later. And another major dye disaster was with my ex boyfriend when he wanted to try something different and have blue and gold hair. While I was coloring it, the color began to turn a greenish color. So we tried to bleach it but it turned a pinkish color instead of blonde. He had to go to work with pink hair which he tried to cover with a baseball cap for a week until we could dye it a brown color that would take because when I tried dyeing it a brown color it just made his hair more pink. Sorry for the long post but also wanted to say that I love your blogs and thank you so much for all of the info you have provided.