Allen the Red

Oh, I should also mention, I dyed my hair red over the weekend. :D BRIGHT RED.

I managed to dye my scalp red too in the process. Now that merits a bit of typing.

I bought the dye at one of those hair product specialty shops in Pacific Mall. The salesgirl basically asked what colour I wanted. She showed me a colour chart with sample "hair" in it that was supposed to be the right colour after dyeing. I wanted something really red. (Red is my favourite colour) The salesgirl was sort of shocked and asked a couple times if I was sure I wanted something so red, to which I replied, definitely, yes. Kathy, who had shown me the shop, just chuckled to herself. Anyways, she told me about what I needed to get the hair to the shade of red in the sample - the actual dye plus a peroxide goop that was rated at 40% something, in order to bleach my hair white first before the colour would take. Kathy got her to write down the instructions, and we paid about $20 for the two items.

When I got around to dyeing my hair, I checked the package instructions, and they were all in French. I decided my French wasn't good enough to read hair dyeing instructions, and I looked up some additional information on the net about it. What I found was a contradictory mess:

• Hair should be washed before dyeing to get rid of excess oils.
  
• Hair should NOT be washed before dyeing so you retain the oils.
  
• Apply peroxide straight to hair.
• Apply peroxide:water in a 1:1 ratio to hair.
• Peroxide works only if you sun your hair.
• You should not feel any burning sensation on your scalp.
• Some burning sensations on your scalp are normal.
  

Anyways, after reading all that stuff off the web, I ended up thinking of dyeing as a 2 step process, uh oh. This is what I did:

• I washed my hair and dried it with a blow dryer.
  
• I put on some plastic gloves and took a liberal handful of the peroxide goop, and started spreading it on my hair.
• I expected to see it start to lighten after a while, but 20 minutes passed with no result except that my scalp was a bit irritated.
• So I mentioned it to Kathy who said - didn't you read the instructions??
• I dug up the instructions which said I had to MIX the peroxide and the dye in 1:1 proportions, and then put that on my hair, in a one step bleach+dye process. DOH!
• I washed my hair clean of the peroxide, and dried it again.
• I mixed some of the dye and peroxide together in a ceramic bowl and started applying it to my hair by hand. It was somewhat irritating and I wondered if I had "opened my pores" too much from all the prior manipulation according to some of the web sites.
  
• I dug up a toothbrush from under the sink to help with the root parts.
• I gave up on the toothbrush and just started rubbing the stuff onto my head. I look like I'm a bloodied car crash survivor or something.
  

This is where it started going kind of wrong. I dyed my scalp red. I dyed part of my forehead red. I recalled that some web pages suggested that I put vaseline on my forehead just in case of specifically that but it was kind of too late for that... and how was I supposed to prevent that from happening to my scalp? Let the natural oils build up on my scalp for half a day after washing my hair?

I was supposed to wait for 45 minutes to let the dye set in, but I couldn't help but play with my hair during the time. I probably should have let it be, peacefully, but I was all hmm, I should rub here and make sure I get more dye there. So for about 30 minutes, I have been basically massaging my scalp with dye. I decide that that was enough, since my scalp was getting a bit itchy, and my hair was starting to look seriously red instead of black. Maybe it was cause I had marinated my scalp with peroxide for 20 minutes before I did the dyeing.

I pop into the shower and rinse off the stuff... shampoo, etc - a lot of dye goes down the drain but hey, my scalp is still red, I can see in the medicine cabinet from where I am in the shower. Even part of my forehead is still bright red. I continue showering for a while, the dye still making the water all bloody. After about 15 or 20 minutes, my forehead stopped looking like it'd been split open, and became a bit more normal. My scalp was still really red though. I guess all the manipulation did do something about opening the pores, and the dye on my scalp really settled in. Anyways, I washed as best as I could considered I had to get over to F's place soon. I figured that after a while the oils from my scalp should counter the dyes and the topmost layer should wear down eventually. What's done is done - next time though, I gotta look up how to dye short hair without dying my scalp even redder than the hair in the process.

So anyways, the second day after another wash, my scalp looks much more normal... now on the third day, it's a bit better again, but not normal enough - someone at work today commented "hey part of your scalp is red!" I was like - Yeah I know and it kinda sucks. (Argh) Hopefully it will be better soon, haha.

Other than the scalp stuff, I really like the redness of the hair. :D I'd take a picture but I still haven't looked around for a camera right now... maybe I'll dig up my webcam or something.

Allen.