Becoming my own hairdresser.

My hair has been high maintenance as long as I can remember. Born with dark, curly/frizzy fine hair but heaps of it, in a tropical location gravity loses badly to the atmospheric humidity that turns it into an afro – which looks quite bizarre with my very fair skin.

Luckily, over the years, technology has been kind and my hair has been tamed (sort of) by the ever-increasing numbers of very effective hair straighteners on the market (at least until it gets wet again or is affected by high humidity). However, I can never get it as sleek and straight as the hairdresser.

Over time though, another level of difficulty has been added to unwanted frizziness – grey hair.

In fair/blonde hair this is not such a problem (it blends in) in dark hair it is a big problem – the contrast is too great and two-toned is not attractive. What’s more, my hair decided to start going grey from the front – in particular around my hairline and I think ‘grey’ is a misnomer. On my head it is shiny silver. So, I appeared to have a halo around my face. It sounds angelic, it wasn’t, it was ugly.

I tried dyeing the hair to match my other brunette locks but it lasted all of two days before the shimmer would erupt again. There was only one solution: go lighter.

Being blonde

Even with my hair blonde, I can still only go for three weeks without having to re-dye it because, dang it, my hair refuses to complete the transition fully and is holding onto those brunette locks for all it’s worth. I swear I will be dead before the transition is completed.

When I was still new at this dyeing business, the problem became how to do it without all your hair falling out in reaction to the chemicals. Over time, and with some spectacular disasters, I now have the problem almost solved. I say “almost’ because my problem has become hairdressers (and my lack of assertiveness).

I’ve found that hairdressers are transient – they move around a lot and no sooner do you think you have one you can trust than she’s gone. And I do mean “she” – I have found male hairdressers (generally speaking) to be far too opinionated about what’s best for my hair with many of these disasters I’ve so far mentioned being at the hands of these gentlemen whose opinions I’ve deferred to – stupid, stupid, stupid.

As a result of the bad ones, I now steer a wide berth around all male hairdressers. I’m sorry if that’s politically incorrect, but heck, my hair is at stake here, it’s too serious to have to pussy-foot around.

Anyway, after much research (read: google) and a plethora of experience, I have happened on a combination of products that work – ie, they lighten the dark and cover the light in a flattering shade (ie NOT canary yellow) without damaging my hair – but trying to get hairdressers to follow the regime is like drawing teeth.

My preferred products are “L’Oreal” not only do they work for me but when I am in residence in France, I can get my hair done with the same product because L’Oreal is the dominant French brand.

There are many salons who use L’Oreal in Sydney, but lately none of them are getting the desired result. I ask them to use Inoa Supreme and not just Inoa as the first mentioned has superior coverage of grey (from 70-100% according to their marketing) and although the hairdressers say they are, either they or L’Oreal are lying because the grey ain’t covered – not even nearly. Most of the time I come from the hairdressers disappointed or only momentarily pleased (until I wash my hair).

So when a new hairdresser suggests an alternative, in desperation, I sometimes let them try it their way. WRONG.

The last straw was when I was charged almost $400 for the usual three-weekly service. It was in a salon that I hadn’t tried since the last disaster there many years ago, when the senior stylist/colourist convinced me to have a scalp bleach. Wrong again.

And, in spite of it being a French franchise that is considered an exclusively “L’Oreal salon’ they did not carry Inoa Supreme and used Inoa instead. Up until this particular time, I had been paying $200-250 per visit elsewhere (in a few different places that I’d moved on from because they weren’t getting the results or someone had left).

So, before I was paying say, $250, to get a mediocre job, now I’d just paid $400 for a worse one.

If you want something done well, do it yourself

Colouring hair is not rocket science, you know. It’s painting an appropriate solution onto your roots and hair shaft – the talent is knowing what solution – and clearly, the hairdressers, no matter the price they charge, are not necessarily expert.

So, I decided to do it myself. I know the products to use (by experience) and I know in what proportions to mix them and with what (by a combination of google and the instructions that came with the product). The hardest part was finding where to buy the products – I found a place in Sydney city called SA Hair and Beauty Supplies who not only has a great range of products but also extraordinarily helpful staff.

I bought the products – tint, toner and developers – and all the paraphernalia I’d need like capes, brushes, mixing bowls and measuring cups and I was ready to go. 

All of this cost me just $140.00 even though some of the products I bought were superfluous (I got them “just in case”) and what I have (product-wise) will last me for at least three, maybe four colour refreshers.  Next time, I will only need to buy the relevant products, which will be a fraction of that $140.00.

The proof of the pudding…

The night before the morning when I was scheduled to do the dye job, I had nightmares. I was nervous. In my dreams my hair had turned orange but, undeterred, I went ahead with dyeing my hair anyway.

If you are a hairdresser, at this juncture you’re probably hoping that my dream came true – sorry, it didn’t. My hair came out brilliantly.

The most difficult part was doing the back – because, obviously, I can’t see it, so I missed a few bits. But overall, it came out the exact shade and tone I’d wanted with brilliant grey coverage – better than any hairdresser had, so far, managed.

The moral of the story

The moral of the story is for hairdressers mainly – lift your game. If you want to charge $400 for this type of service make sure you’re offering what your price tag suggests. If the brand you carry has superior products to those you use, why do you consider yourselves to be prestigious establishments if you don’t offer these premium products?

If I re-colour my hair every three weeks and it is going to cost $400 a time – that’s a lot of money over a year (you do the maths – remembering that the $140.00 initial outlay included items that I won’t have to rebuy.)

In reality though, I’d prefer to visit the hairdresser to have my hair dyed – it feels like pampering – but at $250 a time I was getting a bit uncomfortable at $400, I’m really uncomfortable, especially if it still is not right.