Monday, October 5, 2009

The dye job, part III


That color is killer!

Oh, how I love it! I just need some streaks to really give the hair personality and then...I'll be done with coloring for a awhile.

It's crazy how much BETTER I feel with color. I look in the mirror and I just feel...more attractive. Lightening the hair, I think, compliments my skintone. Dark brown hair can be so harsh and just....expected. And can I be honest? Boring. And when it comes to my hair, I am anything but that.

I used Clairol's Miss. Clairol in Sunberry.



I didn't even mean to choose this color! I thought I picked up a brown but it wasn't until I had this stuff on my head and it started turning red until I realized, "Opps...I dun picked up the WRONG one."

I wasn't too upset about it..I wanted to go brown but red wouldn't kill me.

I did my research on how to mix the permanent hair dye and developer. I was kinda nervous about this because I have never done it before. They say you should only go to professionals for stuff like that but I don't know what it is about me...I never mind experimenting with color on my hair. Which is a both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because my hair always comes out alright and a curse because one day it may not.

But we digress. The developer.....


I learned a lot in this permanent dye experience. The number at the bottom of the developer means how much PULL you want from the dye. Does that make sense? The numbers range from 10-40 (I think) with 10 meaning you don't want your hair to change THAT much. The lady at Sally's Beauty Supply told me 10 should be okay for me.

And no offense to her expertise but she was a White girl with straight hair she even admitted to me that she wasn't too knowledgeable about "natural hair". So I took her advice with a grain of salt and got the 30.

Besides, I'm a rebel anyway and following rules make me nauseous. ;)

I measured the developer and the color and put it in a bottle...



Put that mess all over and donned a shower cap on top. I probably could have gone with TWO bottles of color and you'll see why in a minute.

I let the color sit for a good hour and checked it every 10 minutes or so. I washed it out and it wasn't until then I realized....I didn't have any CONDITIONER!

You ever want to curse yourself out? Yeahhh.....that was me. Then I remembered I had that good ole' Trader's Joe conditioner (yes, Amina I still have it and LOVE it). I rinsed thoroughly and washed with castile soap. I don't think this was the best selection simply because my hair was already dry from the dye and we all know how CLEAN castile soap can get the hair and body. But it ended up working well. After conditioning for a good 30 minutes I did minor re-twisting with palm rolling. This took NO time because a lot of my roots are latched so I just palm rolled the loc for neatness.

And I braided them down to get the crinkly effect. Which worked this time! But that mess takes 10 years to do and 10 years to take out so er uhh....won't be doing that often. Even though I LOVED the way it looks. And 3 days later and the crinkles are still gorgeous.


See how brown my hair is?



But because I'm NOT a professional I was remiss in distributing the dye evenly all over. So some of the back locs are still dark brown/black.


Boo. But whatev. I am still oh so satisfied. Next month I think I'll dye a few locs in the front just for the funky factor and I PROMISE, I'm done.


Do I recommend doing this?
You know your comfort zone. Some people feel comfortable dyeing their own hair. Some don't. If you have any reservations then you should definitely get it done professionally. I've been dyeing my natural hair for quite some time now so I felt as if I had done enough research and planning to do it. And I have zero regrets.

Color is my locs' best friend.

....and I would like to add that my hair isn't dry in the least. Not one bit. Moisture is the key when it comes to hair color so I have to come up with a regime that will ensure that my locs aren't a dry and crispy mess.

Stay tuned for that....

Peace and loc've

9 comments:

Samantha Sophia said...

I love it. This is so you.

Amina said...

gorgeous! Your hair is so long now! Isn't it last year that you big chopped!

Bsquared86 said...

love it! i think i'm going to give a clairol product a try, I want to go a little lighter.

Anonymous said...

very cute! i dyed my hair twice with crappy and cheap dye and it made it hard. i went to textures and tones cherrywood and did it on two occassions to get the color even. i didn't leave it on long enough the first time. they don't tell you that you leave the color on for an hour for natural hair and 1 1/2 to 2 hours for loc'd hair. but i am happy with my color right now. :)

coloring your hair a lot in the beginning can become a bad habit. i started out curious and told the lady that started my locs that i was interested in color. she didn't wanna do it from the gate cuz she said i'd be addicted. so when i colored my hair on my own, i let grow out... partially to spite her. lol.

glad your locs are well moisturized!! also, i started interlocking my locs like two years ago because i had bad dandruff and had to wash my hair every 5-7 days. i only palm-roll when i wanna be fancy. :)

D. said...

The color is beautiful! I want to dye my hair, but I'm not sure about the color yet. During my crazy days, I'm think ing about pink highlights xD

B said...

Thank you, darlings!

girl1125---> That was one of the firs lessons I learned when dyeing my natural hair; that it has to stay on longer. I always take what the box says and add another 30-40 minutes to that.

Color is super addicting!! And interlocking=life changing. I'm just mad I didn't think about doing it earlier!

Zmaga---> You rock out with your pink, girl. Trust me, if I could, I'd have pink, purple, and blue locs. Seriously!

eMCee said...

Yes, that's hot Ms. Britt. But I'ma hafta rely on the professionals to color my locs in a year or so cause I am no where as patient (or skilled) as you!

Kellie Muse said...

DYE IT! DYE IT! DYE IT!

Dying your hair ROCKS! I have been dying my hair for FOREVER - when I get older my hair is not going to go gray...but PINK as I have been dying it RED for so long!

Speaking of pink...my NATURAL is actually a RED bordering on FUCHSIA!

I LOVE IT! I don't have to lead a conservative "hair" life...so I LOVE IT!

And I think it makes people "HAPPY" too! Many folks have come up to me SMILING in recent weeks about how they love the color...(some even realize that it's pink!!!).

If you're nervous...DYE iT!
If you think you shouldn't...DYE iT!
If you need a change...DYE iT!
If you want to get noticed...DYE iT!

REMEMBER...RED's fade quickly. Help the color SNAP by rinsing the hair in cool almost cold water - when you first color and you're rinsing out the dye.

Always wash your hair in cool water with COLOR ENHANCING shampoos & conditioners. I know we all have our favorites...Carol's Daughter & etc. - so alternate your favorite with the drugstore/salon color enhancing products.

I DYE'd when I was permed (2001 & beyond) & I DYE now that I'm natural (2001 & who knows!.

Kellie Muse said...

Sorry...old photo---->>>the locs are gone now & the hair is FIRE ENGINE FUCHSIA!

Me 2010! http://twitpic.com/nexrq