Let me tell you how it all began . . .
I got bored. . .
Those of you who know me well know that when I get bored something's about to change. The easiest thing to change while traveling the world is my hair. I wasn't ready to cut it so I went out and bout some hair dye. Now, at this point in time I was in China. I couldn't read the writing on the box but I could see the colors, so I chose a burgundy red color that I planned to put on the underneath layer, and I bought a box of blonde that I was going to use to put a streak in the very front.
It was a great plan, but time got away from me and I never did it. I thought about it the following month when I was in South Africa. I even got the dye out of my pack, but then I got distracted and once again, it didn't happen. The next month I went to Mozambique and got my hair braided. The braids lasted until month 6 in Romania. When I finally took them out I looked like Mufassa, AND I was ready for the color change.
I got out the 2 boxes of Chinese hair dye and got to work parting and separating my hair for the big event. Oh, I should add that I also bought a box of brown hair dye for the middle section – the majority of my hair. You don't have to like it. Just understand, it's what I do . . . OK, so I got out the dye and got to work. No problems there. About a half hour later I jumped in the shower to wash it out. I saw a lot of burgundy dye streaming out of my hair. That was a good sign. The brown turned out much lighter than I expected which discouraged me a little bit because I didn't think the blond would be light enough to stand out against it.
Boy was I wrong! The blonde stood out alright. It stood out so much it almost glowed. If I put a hat on and took it off again I could do Morse code with my hair. It only took a matter of minutes before I was given the nickname, Colonel Mustard. "Oh well, it's only hair" I said. "It's kind of like make-up. It's just an accessory. I kept it for a few days but really didn't like the yellow so I bought another box of hair dye from the village market. This time I bought medium brown. The color turned out nice. Darker than usual but very natural looking. The only problem was that it didn't cover all of my hair because it's so long, so the back was splotchy. I'm not sure what's worse, yellow hair or splotchy hair.
I kept that for a few days and then decided I wanted to try and even out the color. I went back to the village market and bought another box. Unfortunately, the second box of medium brown turned out to be black. Wowsa! That was a little shocking. So now my hair was black and streaky on top and burgundy underneath. This was starting to get ridiculous.
The next day we were leaving Romania and I had a lot of packing and cleaning to do before we headed to Bulgaria. However, I did have to stop at the store and while I was there I just happened to pick up another box of hair dye. I'm sorry. I have a problem . . . This time I bought blonde. I went back to the house, mixed up the dye, and started painting it on small sections of my hair with a toothbrush. It took a full 20 minutes before I started to notice any changes but the dye finally started to take effect. I stood in front of the mirror and watched the whole time. I didn't want to take any chances. Unfortunately I wasn't watching my eyebrows. A stray hair covered in blonde dye inadvertently came to rest on my right eyebrow. The outcome? It looked like I shaved a stripe right down the center. I couldn't believe it. I have been dying my hair with everything from teabags to cool aide since I was 16 and I have NEVER had this many problems getting the outcome I wanted.
I can't say it looks the way I originally anticipated, but it is manageable. It is still burgundy underneath with a brownish color on top that fades to a reddish and finally blonde in the very front. All I can say is don't buy hair dye in non-English speaking countries. The colors aren't accurate, the instructions are useless, and it does not end well . . . Today, a woman I was working with randomly told me she knew a good hairdresser incase I was interested . . .
