Chicago Tales #2: Bleach & Marble - The Prequel
Bleach and Marble turned out to be a recurring theme throughout my trip, and it all started the week before we even left.
Hi, I'm Keebs and I was born with naturally mouse blonde hair. However, I had been professionally blonde since I was 16 years old (chlorine blonde since childhood from pools). Granted, I tried black once and a few other weird choices throughout the years but, for the majority of my life, it's been blonde. My foray into purple a few years ago (mixed with blue, and blue ALWAYS fades to green, and green HAS to grow off) meant that I had almost a year of growing off all that bad ju-ju color that was left over (covered up with a brown) and a year of my natural color. From what I've been told, you either go gray or go darker as you get older...apparently I got darker. Darker on me made me feel like I looked 10 years older than am, so I was squirming as it was and was going to switch back to blonde, trip or not.
As a side note, when it comes to me and blonde, I don't like gold blonde, especially on me. I don't have the coloring for it. I'm more of the champagne blonde kind of person. Gold blonde looks yellow on me and its horrible! I also can't go red because it ALWAYS goes orange. My hair is VERY weird! The one time I had her do it professionally purple, it turned brown. She is very aware of my weird hair and all its quirks (it matches the weird rest of me), and she's dealt with it for YEARS, so I trust her (usually). I've only ever had two people do my hair, and she's been doing it as long as she's had her license.
I was scheduled for later in the day, but it was a pageant day (and I HATE getting caught in those and she knows it), so she moved me up to avoid that horrible traffic. I get there bright and early, all my example pics/videos ready to go (think Daisy Johnson, Season 6 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D....without the blue/purple streaks, basically balayage'd champagne blonde) and, in no time, I'm all 40-volumed up and sitting there stewing. My Sister was getting her's done at the same time (she, surprisingly enough, was going darker with some copper streaks, she was BORN blonde, go figure...the exact opposite of me), so we kept getting swapped out, but she got finished before me and, despite our plans to mull around town, she didn't feel well, so she went home as the first pageant people started to mill in.
Now, as she's drying my hair, I'm not seeing the "marbling" that my hair should have, but rather just a VERY slightly lighter overall color and I start to squirm and she notices. She keeps saying, "it will lighten as it dries", but I can tell she's starting to squirm too. By the time she's done drying it, she realizes that it didn't take and she now has three little pageant girls starring at her with very impatient demanding faces. I'm more demanding and she knows it, so she quickly slaps another load of 40 volume on hap-hazardly, and kicks me to the side as she starts in on the first kid-victim. She knows I'm unhappy being there with those pageant kids, but we've also been texting back-and-forth, and she knows I'm MORE unhappy with my hair and willing to suffer it out (which is saying a LOT because I don't deal well with a) kids, b) pageant kids, c) people in general, d) mistakes).
First monster child is finished up and drag ready, and again, we start in rinsing and drying my hair...still nada! Two FULL rounds of 40 volume bleach and NO BLONDE! We went over my meds, we went over my conditions, we went over what I had to eat the night before (nothing conflicted). She started to go a third time, but the pageant mom complained that they had to be at wherever by a certain time and they would be late if she continued on me. Now here is where I screwed up because I offered to step aside, so her brats could get finished...not something I would normally do, I am not considerate of others. My stylist knew this and asked if I was willing to come back later in the week, but my answer was a definite NO, I wanted to wait. At this point, I probably should have realized that she was asking because she didn't have time for me, but again, I'm NOT considerate of others and I was only thinking of myself. Part of me was thinking of my busy work week, part of me was thinking that it's hard enough for me to get the courage to go there once, twice in a week is just too much, and the other part of me was I just wanted my hair fixed so I can move on with my planned week.
I sat in that shop the ENTIRE day, with kids coming and going, their horrible little demands being met at every turn and their horrible behaviors being completely ignored/placated by their mothers. I just plugged into my iPad and watched numerous episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tried to ignore as much as I could (including the baby that was crawling on the dirty, hair-covered floor, sucking on bottles of hair products, throwing containers that had used bleaching agents in them and playing with old foil papers, etc) while her mother paid her absolutely no attention.
At the very end of the day, I was FINALLY back in the chair and we decided that, since I had already been through two full rounds of bleach, a third round could potentially be really damaging, so we would just do from about halfway down to the tips, but again, just in chunks, streaks, and "marbled". As I'm watching her work, I notice she's covering the entire bottom half of my hair with bleach, and I ask her THREE times, "are you covering it all with bleach?" to which I got three responses, "no, I'm spacing it out". She wasn't spacing it out. After an extended bleaching time, again I was washed and dried and, to my horror (and to hers), the entire bottom half of my hair was bright gold.
I think I was just tired and too stunned to speak and I know she was tired. I didn't fight too much and she didn't say anything, so I just paid and left. She recommended purple shampoo and conditioner (remember that...those things are important and will come in handy in the next story), so I proceeded to head directly to Target to get said items along with some last minute trip stuff, not really realizing how bad my hair actually looked.
Once I got home, however, the full weight of what was on my head, hit me. It was a NIGHTMARE! It reminded me of the time I tried to go from blonde to brown as a kid and turned my hair green! I immediately used the purple cocktail (twice), then did it a third time and let it sit, hoping it would take out the yellow brass. It didn't. When I woke up Sunday, I did it again, only this time I let the conditioner sit on it for hours, but I think it was just getting oranger! By late in the day, knowing my hair girl had a birthday party for her son that day, I texted her anyway and told her that she would have to fix my hair before I went to Chicago the following Thursday and possibly before I could leave the house even for work...I couldn't live with my hair like this!
She doesn't work on Mondays at all and wouldn't make an allowance for it, so I wore a ponytail and actually did go to work (although I did seriously debate on calling in sick), but I had an appointment scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning. It interfered with my VERY busy work schedule, but this was an EMERGENCY and I DID phrase it to work like that. They didn't understand, but I didn't give them a choice. There are times when I put my foot down about things and this was one of them.
When I walked back in her shop that morning, she was horrified by the damage she had done and almost started crying (so at least that made me feel better), and she realized that yes, she HAD covered the entire bottom with bleach. Even when I texted her Sunday, she still believed she had "marbled" it. I knew that I had pressured her by staying and I knew she was tired, I just didn't realize HOW tired until that moment. She is kind of a pushover and my Asper self tends to always want my way. And I ended up torturing myself by sitting there for 10 hours with a bunch of horrible children and even worse parents coming and going (my worst nightmare), all so I could leave with horrible hair! I kind of deserved what I got. She started in immediately, and for the FOURTH time in less than a week, I had bleach put on my hair yet again.
But this time, my hair came out absolutely PERFECT! Better than it has in YEARS! Granted, it's more high school Keebs and adult Keebs. The older I got the more bold I tended to get with color. This is very subtle highlighting, nothing wild or crazy, very natural, but it is exactly the right color that I like, even if it is NOTHING like Daisy Johnson's hair. She also had to super deep condition it, but still. I offered to pay her yet again (but she really outdid herself the fourth time), but thankfully she refused (and I'm glad she did because I technically didn't have the money to pay her anyway without using my nail money).
I didn't walk into work that day until well after 1 pm, but at least I could walk into work without a ponytail. I am still fighting dryness, but ironically, my hair was falling out a lot more BEFORE I had this done than it is now and it's been growing a LOT faster SINCE I had this done! I think my hair missed being blonde.
Short story long? I was meant to be blonde and I need to NEVER go back to my natural color! Granted, considering some of the very white blonde pieces at the bottom (where it's been over bleached), I have been more than tempted to streak some purple underneath but, I'm holding off that craving for now.
Next time...the side effects of the purple shampoo and marble!
Hi, I'm Keebs and I was born with naturally mouse blonde hair. However, I had been professionally blonde since I was 16 years old (chlorine blonde since childhood from pools). Granted, I tried black once and a few other weird choices throughout the years but, for the majority of my life, it's been blonde. My foray into purple a few years ago (mixed with blue, and blue ALWAYS fades to green, and green HAS to grow off) meant that I had almost a year of growing off all that bad ju-ju color that was left over (covered up with a brown) and a year of my natural color. From what I've been told, you either go gray or go darker as you get older...apparently I got darker. Darker on me made me feel like I looked 10 years older than am, so I was squirming as it was and was going to switch back to blonde, trip or not.
As a side note, when it comes to me and blonde, I don't like gold blonde, especially on me. I don't have the coloring for it. I'm more of the champagne blonde kind of person. Gold blonde looks yellow on me and its horrible! I also can't go red because it ALWAYS goes orange. My hair is VERY weird! The one time I had her do it professionally purple, it turned brown. She is very aware of my weird hair and all its quirks (it matches the weird rest of me), and she's dealt with it for YEARS, so I trust her (usually). I've only ever had two people do my hair, and she's been doing it as long as she's had her license.
I was scheduled for later in the day, but it was a pageant day (and I HATE getting caught in those and she knows it), so she moved me up to avoid that horrible traffic. I get there bright and early, all my example pics/videos ready to go (think Daisy Johnson, Season 6 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D....without the blue/purple streaks, basically balayage'd champagne blonde) and, in no time, I'm all 40-volumed up and sitting there stewing. My Sister was getting her's done at the same time (she, surprisingly enough, was going darker with some copper streaks, she was BORN blonde, go figure...the exact opposite of me), so we kept getting swapped out, but she got finished before me and, despite our plans to mull around town, she didn't feel well, so she went home as the first pageant people started to mill in.
Now, as she's drying my hair, I'm not seeing the "marbling" that my hair should have, but rather just a VERY slightly lighter overall color and I start to squirm and she notices. She keeps saying, "it will lighten as it dries", but I can tell she's starting to squirm too. By the time she's done drying it, she realizes that it didn't take and she now has three little pageant girls starring at her with very impatient demanding faces. I'm more demanding and she knows it, so she quickly slaps another load of 40 volume on hap-hazardly, and kicks me to the side as she starts in on the first kid-victim. She knows I'm unhappy being there with those pageant kids, but we've also been texting back-and-forth, and she knows I'm MORE unhappy with my hair and willing to suffer it out (which is saying a LOT because I don't deal well with a) kids, b) pageant kids, c) people in general, d) mistakes).
First monster child is finished up and drag ready, and again, we start in rinsing and drying my hair...still nada! Two FULL rounds of 40 volume bleach and NO BLONDE! We went over my meds, we went over my conditions, we went over what I had to eat the night before (nothing conflicted). She started to go a third time, but the pageant mom complained that they had to be at wherever by a certain time and they would be late if she continued on me. Now here is where I screwed up because I offered to step aside, so her brats could get finished...not something I would normally do, I am not considerate of others. My stylist knew this and asked if I was willing to come back later in the week, but my answer was a definite NO, I wanted to wait. At this point, I probably should have realized that she was asking because she didn't have time for me, but again, I'm NOT considerate of others and I was only thinking of myself. Part of me was thinking of my busy work week, part of me was thinking that it's hard enough for me to get the courage to go there once, twice in a week is just too much, and the other part of me was I just wanted my hair fixed so I can move on with my planned week.
I sat in that shop the ENTIRE day, with kids coming and going, their horrible little demands being met at every turn and their horrible behaviors being completely ignored/placated by their mothers. I just plugged into my iPad and watched numerous episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tried to ignore as much as I could (including the baby that was crawling on the dirty, hair-covered floor, sucking on bottles of hair products, throwing containers that had used bleaching agents in them and playing with old foil papers, etc) while her mother paid her absolutely no attention.
At the very end of the day, I was FINALLY back in the chair and we decided that, since I had already been through two full rounds of bleach, a third round could potentially be really damaging, so we would just do from about halfway down to the tips, but again, just in chunks, streaks, and "marbled". As I'm watching her work, I notice she's covering the entire bottom half of my hair with bleach, and I ask her THREE times, "are you covering it all with bleach?" to which I got three responses, "no, I'm spacing it out". She wasn't spacing it out. After an extended bleaching time, again I was washed and dried and, to my horror (and to hers), the entire bottom half of my hair was bright gold.
I think I was just tired and too stunned to speak and I know she was tired. I didn't fight too much and she didn't say anything, so I just paid and left. She recommended purple shampoo and conditioner (remember that...those things are important and will come in handy in the next story), so I proceeded to head directly to Target to get said items along with some last minute trip stuff, not really realizing how bad my hair actually looked.
Once I got home, however, the full weight of what was on my head, hit me. It was a NIGHTMARE! It reminded me of the time I tried to go from blonde to brown as a kid and turned my hair green! I immediately used the purple cocktail (twice), then did it a third time and let it sit, hoping it would take out the yellow brass. It didn't. When I woke up Sunday, I did it again, only this time I let the conditioner sit on it for hours, but I think it was just getting oranger! By late in the day, knowing my hair girl had a birthday party for her son that day, I texted her anyway and told her that she would have to fix my hair before I went to Chicago the following Thursday and possibly before I could leave the house even for work...I couldn't live with my hair like this!
She doesn't work on Mondays at all and wouldn't make an allowance for it, so I wore a ponytail and actually did go to work (although I did seriously debate on calling in sick), but I had an appointment scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning. It interfered with my VERY busy work schedule, but this was an EMERGENCY and I DID phrase it to work like that. They didn't understand, but I didn't give them a choice. There are times when I put my foot down about things and this was one of them.
When I walked back in her shop that morning, she was horrified by the damage she had done and almost started crying (so at least that made me feel better), and she realized that yes, she HAD covered the entire bottom with bleach. Even when I texted her Sunday, she still believed she had "marbled" it. I knew that I had pressured her by staying and I knew she was tired, I just didn't realize HOW tired until that moment. She is kind of a pushover and my Asper self tends to always want my way. And I ended up torturing myself by sitting there for 10 hours with a bunch of horrible children and even worse parents coming and going (my worst nightmare), all so I could leave with horrible hair! I kind of deserved what I got. She started in immediately, and for the FOURTH time in less than a week, I had bleach put on my hair yet again.
But this time, my hair came out absolutely PERFECT! Better than it has in YEARS! Granted, it's more high school Keebs and adult Keebs. The older I got the more bold I tended to get with color. This is very subtle highlighting, nothing wild or crazy, very natural, but it is exactly the right color that I like, even if it is NOTHING like Daisy Johnson's hair. She also had to super deep condition it, but still. I offered to pay her yet again (but she really outdid herself the fourth time), but thankfully she refused (and I'm glad she did because I technically didn't have the money to pay her anyway without using my nail money).
I didn't walk into work that day until well after 1 pm, but at least I could walk into work without a ponytail. I am still fighting dryness, but ironically, my hair was falling out a lot more BEFORE I had this done than it is now and it's been growing a LOT faster SINCE I had this done! I think my hair missed being blonde.
Short story long? I was meant to be blonde and I need to NEVER go back to my natural color! Granted, considering some of the very white blonde pieces at the bottom (where it's been over bleached), I have been more than tempted to streak some purple underneath but, I'm holding off that craving for now.
Next time...the side effects of the purple shampoo and marble!
Comments
Linda
What a performance but at least your hair came out alright in the end. Phew, what a relief!