As a small child, I was blessed with the sort of honey-blonde hair that you usually see on cherubic Nordic children in catalogues. Unfortunately for my parents, I'm fairly sure that this was the only cherubic thing about me, but being blonde-haired and blue-eyed was my calling card and I was so upset when I hit my early teens and my cherished blonde locks began turning a muddy, mousy brown colour. That was the moment I was introduced to the sometimes dubious pleasures of the dye bottle...
Those first early forays were nothing much to write home about, it has to be said. Wella wash-in, wash-out temporary dyes, a desperate attempt to reclaim the cherished blonde tresses that I mourned. When I was 14, I managed to persuade my long-suffering mother to pay for blonde highlights at the hairdressers; a few hours after I walked in to the salon I strode out floating on air, back to being a full-time, permanent blonde. I was in heaven. Blondes, after all, have more fun. But so do redheads, and brunettes, and blue hair is just funky...it was no good, I was addicted to the bottle.
Over the years, my hair has been practically every colour known to chemists and - more by luck than judgement - it appears to still be both intact and in pretty good condition. There have been a few disasters over the years; once I used a temporary black dye on my platinum blonde tresses so that I could pass convincingly as a witch for Halloween and ended up with a faded grey mess, and there was also the time I dyed it such a dark shade of red that I wept for days and had to pay out for my eternally patient hairdresser to put loads of blonde highlights in it to rectify the problem; overall, though, I've been quite lucky with my forays into chameleon-like reinvention. Until now, that is.
Oh yes, I have committed the cardinal sin of DIY-dying, and I am suffering for it. Until last night, the only time I have ever had a bad reaction to a hair dye was when I used the Herbal Essences range - ironic, really, considering that it's supposed to be all natural and has no peroxide or ammonia in it. And of course the instructions on the packet of every single colourant tell you categorically to do a patch test 48 hours before colouring your hair. To those of you who have never succumbed to the joy of changing your hair on a whim, a patch test consists of you dabbing a small amount of the chemically-potent dye on a small patch of skin (usually behind your ear or in the crook of your elbow) and waiting 45 minutes before washing it off. If in that time you experience any reactions, such as stinging, burning or - Goddess forbid - rashes, you know not to use the colourant. No reaction, go crazy. You are supposed to do this every time you colour your hair, even if you use the same shade every time, because the allergic reaction has in some very rare cases been fatal. Even if it isn't life threatening, the potential reactions can be horrendous. I'm not exactly a virgin where the colouring of my hair is concerned and I know full well what I'm supposed to do. Last night, however, I was in such a fever of curiosity to know what my new colour would look like that I blithely skipped the testing stage and went straight into full-on chemical alteration mode. Never, ever again. Although the reaction has luckily been nowhere near as severe as it could have been, I've been left with the occasional tingle and irritation of the scalp, a few patches of skin that feel hot to the touch and the distinct feeling that I should have known better.
So let my story be a lesson to you, boys and girls. By all means reach for the eternal allure of the dye bottle; glory in your ability to change your colour on a whim, but for the love of everything that you hold dear take your time and do the patch test!!! As for me, I'm going to have to shamefacedly trot off to my hairdresser tomorrow lunchtime to make sure that everything is all right and that I won't lose my hair/skin/anything else. I'll also be laying off the colour for a while; better safe than sorry, after all.
It won't be forever, though. I know what I'm like, and as soon as I get bored with this particular shade I'll be reaching for the bottle once again...
Only this time, I won't be so impatient and I'll do the damn patch test!
Those first early forays were nothing much to write home about, it has to be said. Wella wash-in, wash-out temporary dyes, a desperate attempt to reclaim the cherished blonde tresses that I mourned. When I was 14, I managed to persuade my long-suffering mother to pay for blonde highlights at the hairdressers; a few hours after I walked in to the salon I strode out floating on air, back to being a full-time, permanent blonde. I was in heaven. Blondes, after all, have more fun. But so do redheads, and brunettes, and blue hair is just funky...it was no good, I was addicted to the bottle.
Over the years, my hair has been practically every colour known to chemists and - more by luck than judgement - it appears to still be both intact and in pretty good condition. There have been a few disasters over the years; once I used a temporary black dye on my platinum blonde tresses so that I could pass convincingly as a witch for Halloween and ended up with a faded grey mess, and there was also the time I dyed it such a dark shade of red that I wept for days and had to pay out for my eternally patient hairdresser to put loads of blonde highlights in it to rectify the problem; overall, though, I've been quite lucky with my forays into chameleon-like reinvention. Until now, that is.
Oh yes, I have committed the cardinal sin of DIY-dying, and I am suffering for it. Until last night, the only time I have ever had a bad reaction to a hair dye was when I used the Herbal Essences range - ironic, really, considering that it's supposed to be all natural and has no peroxide or ammonia in it. And of course the instructions on the packet of every single colourant tell you categorically to do a patch test 48 hours before colouring your hair. To those of you who have never succumbed to the joy of changing your hair on a whim, a patch test consists of you dabbing a small amount of the chemically-potent dye on a small patch of skin (usually behind your ear or in the crook of your elbow) and waiting 45 minutes before washing it off. If in that time you experience any reactions, such as stinging, burning or - Goddess forbid - rashes, you know not to use the colourant. No reaction, go crazy. You are supposed to do this every time you colour your hair, even if you use the same shade every time, because the allergic reaction has in some very rare cases been fatal. Even if it isn't life threatening, the potential reactions can be horrendous. I'm not exactly a virgin where the colouring of my hair is concerned and I know full well what I'm supposed to do. Last night, however, I was in such a fever of curiosity to know what my new colour would look like that I blithely skipped the testing stage and went straight into full-on chemical alteration mode. Never, ever again. Although the reaction has luckily been nowhere near as severe as it could have been, I've been left with the occasional tingle and irritation of the scalp, a few patches of skin that feel hot to the touch and the distinct feeling that I should have known better.
So let my story be a lesson to you, boys and girls. By all means reach for the eternal allure of the dye bottle; glory in your ability to change your colour on a whim, but for the love of everything that you hold dear take your time and do the patch test!!! As for me, I'm going to have to shamefacedly trot off to my hairdresser tomorrow lunchtime to make sure that everything is all right and that I won't lose my hair/skin/anything else. I'll also be laying off the colour for a while; better safe than sorry, after all.
It won't be forever, though. I know what I'm like, and as soon as I get bored with this particular shade I'll be reaching for the bottle once again...
Only this time, I won't be so impatient and I'll do the damn patch test!
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