When you color your own hair...

So, I had some time on my hands today, waiting for my daughter to get out of school, and I do my favorite thing...people watch. There are quite a few kids at our high school who like to color their hair. You'll see blue (which eventually turns to green), pink, purple. Then, there are those certain "incidents" that occur. Someone gets a bee in their bonnet that they must have blond hair, whether the gods gave it to them or not. It's not that I have anything against the chemicals in the box..not specifically, anyway. They've changed so much over the years that there's not a helluva lot of difference between box & professional color (don't tell my boss I said that!), other than someone like me, who is trained to formulate a custom color for you, and apply it properly to your head, so nothing gets missed. (trust me, it's pretty funny to be cutting someones hair and see the big spots they missed! Usually in the back of the head). What truly bothers me about box color are the instructions inside. They're rather vague. Some will even tell you to mix up the color and just mush it around in your hair. What the heck kind of coverage do you think you get with that??? Weirdness. That's what you get. And, those nifty pictures they show on the back, demonstrating what color your hair will possibly turn after using their product. NOT!!! What the consumer doesn't know is the factors you need to take into consideration before selecting a color. For example: What is your natural hair level?? What is your targeted level?? What volume developer should you be using to make that happen?? If your hair is darker than what my mother used to call "dirty blond", you will NOT turn blond safely or evenly with a box hair color. It's chemically impossible. Anything darker will lift to what I've learned to politely call "ethnic orange" because the level of developer isn't strong enough to take it any higher. The young lady in question that I saw today has a beautiful head of long, naturally curly hair. I don't know what her father's specific ethnic background is, other than Caucasian. Her mother is part Vietnamese, so she definitely has an "ethnic" look about her. Along with that "look" is the dark hair to go with it. Now, if level 10 is pale blond, and level 1 is jet black, this girl is maybe a level 4. Which means, in layman's terms, she's a chocolate brown. Like a Hershey bar. Pretty dark. It looked like they used enough color for her nearly waist length hair--what I could see of her entire head of hair looked covered with color. However. Because her hair would only lift maybe two levels, she's at a brassy level 6...ORANGE with a hint of GOLD. Not flattering to her "olive" complexion, let me tell you. Why did this happen?? It isn't a case of not leaving the product on long enough. It's a case of misunderstanding the directions (for example: If your hair is really dark, this will not work as intended), and the developer not being strong enough to do the job. If she bought more of the same color, would multiple applications eventually work?? No. Color doesn't lift color. Which means, once you put hair color on the hair, nothing, other than lightener (or hair bleach, frosting kit, etc.) will turn the hair a lighter color. If she were to apply the color again, her regrowth area will lighten, but the rest will not. Her ends could turn darker, an ashy color, or do nothing at all. Her regrowth area looks much lighter than the rest because she has body heat working with the chemicals to lighten the hair. No one really knows what strength developer is in those boxes. I, myself, haven't looked at one in so long, I don't know if they list the strength in "secret" code on the side of the box. I can tell you this: if you've never colored your hair before, and you want to go LIGHTER, please, please, please go to a salon. It's not always a cheap/easy fix to take you back to your natural color when you make that mistake. It gets pricy because it's time consuming. First, we have to assess the damage to see if your hair can tolerate more chemicals. If it can, we then need to figure out which color is missing in your hair, so we can first put that back in. THEN, we put the rest of the color in after filling it, so your color comes out even. And, there's no guarantee that it will come out right the first time. Another thing I've noticed with box color...it really doesn't stress the fact that you DON'T need to comb the color through to the ends. You ONLY need to color the regrowth. When you try to distribute the color all over the hair when you don't need to, you get one or more results: Darker ends, fried looking ends, extremely dry hair. And, while you can slather conditioner onto your hair for a short term fix (until your next shampoo), the only real cure is to cut your hair, regularly, to get rid of the mess you've made. Your hair cannot be "repaired", nor can it be "nourished". Once the cuticle layer has been roughed up, it does not lay back down. And, hair doesn't eat. The only live part of the hair is under the skin, at the follicle, in the bulb. Once that strand breaks through the skin, it's not "alive" any longer. Just passing my words of "wisdom".... :)