| Dye it right! |
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At sixteen, my daughter decided that she wanted to dye her hair. Oh joy… But what could I do? I really had no reason to forbid her from doing so; she was generally very well behaved. The only thing that I really could manage was to find out the best way to let her get it done.
I first tried to show her the merits of highlighting her hair before actually dying it all one color. This included taking small pieces of hair and changing their color and was a great way to test colors and to ease into the idea of dying her hair. Unfortunately, she had no interest in mere highlights and wanted, instead, to shock and surprise her friends by altering her hair from her natural dark shade to a very light blonde.
I tried to convince her on the pros of a semi permanent dye. In this type, which used vegetable oils which would give her hair extra shine, she could test colors to see what she wanted and most would come out after eight showers. Or she could use a semi-permanent dye that would use peroxide (which wasn’t as healthy for the hair) and would stay in for twenty showers while using shampoo. The semi permanent dyes would only sit on the top of her hair, rather than truly dye it permanently. I did my best to convince her with arguments such as: “What if you use permanent dye and decide that you do not like after you have already gotten it done?” I even tried to convince her to give henna a chance. In this natural dye, the hair was darkened to a certain point until the desired effect was achieved but these arguments did not work because it turned out that she wanted to lighten her hair and most semi permanent dyes could only be used to darken hair effectively, especially if made from vegetable oils.
Once I lost that battle, I moved on to another: home dye versus professional dye. I did manage to convince her to go to a professional to get her hair dyed. To do so I used arguments such as the fact that ff she used a home dye, then it could result in easily broken and damaged hair. Most hair dyes used hydrogen peroxide to remove the color of the natural hair and then move the other color of the dye (whatever the chosen color is) into the empty hair. Many times this could dry out hair if not done properly, causing frizz and an altogether unattractive look. Since she wanted to lighten her hair by quite a bit, I also pointed out that in my research I had learned that most dark hair had some red tones and if she tried to bleach it herself, she could end up with orange hair. I also pointed out that if she went to a stylist, she could consult with them on which colors would be complimentary to her skin color, which was a skill that I urged her not to trust her friends with. Besides, the professionals at a salon could dye her hair as well as add highlights and lowlights that would compliment her skin tone and eye color and whatever color she chose and make her look more attractive than she could manage on her own or with her friends advice (who looked as if they had fallen into paint buckets at times).
Eventually, she did agree to go to a professional and chose a honey blonde (quite different from her original choice, thanks to the expertise of her stylist, who knew that the shade she had in mind would make her seem very pale) and had beautiful highlights of a slightly light shade that made her skin seem to shine. I was very glad that I had convinced her and, well, maybe dye was not so bad! |
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