The day grape got revenge

I guess I shouldn’t have been so mean to grape-flavored things, because purple got mad and decided to get its revenge in the form of my hair color.

I’ve been having my hair dyed for years now, usually in various shades of strawberry blond or auburn, so I decided to go a little more extreme and go black. I chose Feria’s Midnight Ruby (Joe dyes it for me at home) because it was described as a rich auburn black. Not! My hair ended up dark purple. I took photos, but you can’t tell in them, so you’re going to have to take my word for it. I was going for an Ashlee Simpson black, not a Marilyn Manson look.

We had some shopping planned yesterday morning (Joe dyed my hair on Friday night), so I put my hair in a ponytail and went about my normal business. Joe was on alert to see if people were staring, but it didn’t seem like it. It was overcast, which helped, because the purple was really noticeable in the sunlight.

I had gone online before we left the house, trying to find a solution to this problem. L’Oreal’s hotline isn’t active on the weekends, so they were of no use. Nor was their website, which has mysteriously changed between yesterday and today and interestingly enough, doesn’t have Midnight Ruby listed as a color anymore. I smell a conspiracy!

Anyway, we ended up at Sally Beauty Supply in search of hair dye remover. I had no idea such stuff existed, but a few sites I came across suggested it, so I thought it would be my best bet. A very nice employee at SBS was helpful enough to direct us to it. Ironically enough, all the removers in stock were also made by L’Oreal. It really makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I pulled out the top of the box I had cut off the hair dye to show it to the girl and remarked “I wasn’t expecting it to come out purple”. She said “Oooo you used a box dye; Feria”. She’s good: it didn’t say Feria anywhere on that cut-out.

The girl was really helpful in choosing a new color to re-dye my hair because the remover just strips the hair of the dark color. She did mention she liked the purple though. Maybe if it was October I would have been more inclined to keep it. We got a bottle of creme developer and the dye and this stuff was cheaper than the Feria. Can you believe that? Not only is it better, but it’s cheaper too. Don’t I feel like an idiot buying this crap at Walmart.

So we went home, snipped off some of my hair to do a strand test, and watched the purple melt away. We made sure the hair was still strong before putting it on my head and risking bald spots. The only thing that sucked is they don’t seem to give you enough chemicals to cover all your hair. After rinsing out the remover, shampooing and conditioning my hair, it was orange and yellow with dark streaks. Too bad it wasn’t Halloween: I could have gone as a clown.

We decided to wait until this morning to re-dye my hair so that my poor abused scalp could rest for a bit. When I woke up at 7 am, most of the yellow spots were orange and even some of the dark spots lightened up a bit. I guess the stuff was still working it’s way through my head, which freaked me out. I took a shower to rinse out my hair again and I shampoo’d it too. I didn’t condition it again because I was afraid it would make it harder for the new dye to adhere.

Around 11 am we re-dyed my hair. There are a few minor spots that are lighter than the others, but overall the results are good. I went with dark auburn this time and will be sticking to the red shades in the future. I’m just glad that whole fiasco is behind me. I want a do-over for the weekend. Between the hair issues and worrying about Joe’s dad, it wasn’t as nice as I had envisioned, although today was better than yesterday.

The moral of this story? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I won’t be dying my hair again for awhile, and when I do, it certainly won’t be with Feria. What a waste of a weekend!