DIY Dye Jobs are as Awful as Fake Tan
July 27th 2010 09:21
I was prompted to write this by something I saw in the CBD at lunchtime—an obese older female office worker with just her fringe dyed purple. The rest of her hair was grey, and greasy.
My point? Unless you’re 19 and skinny, with edgy dress sense and/or an outrageous personality, any bleach or dye job you do yourself is likely to:
• Make you look older than you really are
• Leave you with contrasting roots after a fortnight
• Make you look like a pub slut at an RSL in one of the far Western suburbs
• Spoil somebody’s lunch
Women who bleach their hair blonde tend to make 2 mistakes—they bleach it too blonde, and they bleach it all the same colour. I’m noticing a lot of 28-ish women who have healthy, mousey roots pushing out a uniform mass of dry, bleached fuzz.
Older women who “cover the gray” can never quite match their natural colour, and too easily succumb to the temptation to choose a “richer” shade. The women’s mags are right on this point: too-dark hair ages you, especially if the cut is short.
In a fit of poverty-induced depression, I once tried home hair colour in a fetching shade of strawberry blonde. (Well, the model on the box looked fetching.) The neighbourhood’s frequently intoxicated but observant Aboriginal residents found the change so startling that they took to calling me “Shirley”, after Shirley Temple. Never again.
Now, I spend a fair amount of money at a premium salon getting my hair coloured. The colourist uses a semi-permanent brown base, and puts blonde foils around the hairline and part. It not only looks five times better than a DIY dye job, but grows out subtly. I’m scrimping at the moment, so I’ve put off the next visit, and the new gray looks like a light dusting of silvery snow.
Having said all that—good luck to you edgy, skinny young girls who dye your own hair!
My point? Unless you’re 19 and skinny, with edgy dress sense and/or an outrageous personality, any bleach or dye job you do yourself is likely to:
• Make you look older than you really are
• Leave you with contrasting roots after a fortnight
• Make you look like a pub slut at an RSL in one of the far Western suburbs
• Spoil somebody’s lunch
Women who bleach their hair blonde tend to make 2 mistakes—they bleach it too blonde, and they bleach it all the same colour. I’m noticing a lot of 28-ish women who have healthy, mousey roots pushing out a uniform mass of dry, bleached fuzz.
Older women who “cover the gray” can never quite match their natural colour, and too easily succumb to the temptation to choose a “richer” shade. The women’s mags are right on this point: too-dark hair ages you, especially if the cut is short.
In a fit of poverty-induced depression, I once tried home hair colour in a fetching shade of strawberry blonde. (Well, the model on the box looked fetching.) The neighbourhood’s frequently intoxicated but observant Aboriginal residents found the change so startling that they took to calling me “Shirley”, after Shirley Temple. Never again.
Now, I spend a fair amount of money at a premium salon getting my hair coloured. The colourist uses a semi-permanent brown base, and puts blonde foils around the hairline and part. It not only looks five times better than a DIY dye job, but grows out subtly. I’m scrimping at the moment, so I’ve put off the next visit, and the new gray looks like a light dusting of silvery snow.
Having said all that—good luck to you edgy, skinny young girls who dye your own hair!
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