Yvonne Locke is a first year student in the Public Relations Advanced Diploma program at Humber College.
Follow Yvonne on Twitter: @vonnielocke
First of all, I’d like to start off by mentioning that this post is aimed at males just as much as females. All of us do it, and all of us have the reminders of doing it permanently embedded in our school yearbooks.
Ah, yes, that is the undeterred decision to colour our hair. Here’s my story:
So once upon a ninth grade, I decided I wanted to drastically change my appearance. Not permanently, just for a little while. You know, experiment with my look a bit. I had this crazy notion that I was going to go fully blonde. So off I went to the salon one weekend ready to put my plan into action.
I sat in the salon chair as my hairdresser brushed a bright white solution all over my head. A good 15 minutes later, the foils were so warm you could bake cookies off of them. Clearly this did not seem healthy for my hair, but telling that to an insistent ninth grader was not the easiest thing to do.
After an hour, my hairdresser revealed the new look. Because I had gone from dark brown to blonde, my hair had taken longer to bleach as it had lots of red that needed stripping. This meant even more processing; and if that’s not bad enough, I had to follow up with a toner to give it the silvery look I desired. I knew this was bad for my hair, but in the end, I liked the new look. It gave me a fresh new identity.
Six years later, I look back at this decision and wonder what the hell I was thinking. We all make some strange decisions growing up – I like to call mine ‘a phase’. And now, as I write this with my natural hair colour, let me give you four reasons why your natural hair colour is best:
- You won’t be destroying your hair.
Although hair takes wear and tear from the typical daily abusers (wind, hairbrushes, flat irons, etc.), the chemical process involved in stripping hair to add colour, or even just adding a permanent dye job on top, is extremely damaging to your hair. Do you really want dry, frizzy, broken hair? I still have remnants at the bottom of my hair from the bleach job, and let me tell you, that stuff feels like hay. Crunch!
- You’ll save a heap of money.
Every time I got my roots done, it costed me $100. No lie. Now, this isn’t the case for everyone. Some root touch ups cost $45, $50, or as little as $15 if you’re passing by a Shoppers Drug Mart and pick up a box of do-it-yourself dye. Either way, maintenance is expensive and that money could have gone towards something you really liked. Like that Chanel bag you’ve been eyeing. Or that fancy new set of wheels. Vroom.
- Your hair colour should match your skin tone.
Chances are the best match for your skin tone is the hair you were born with. Don’t get me wrong, certain people (Emma Stone, to be exact!) can pull off hair colour that they weren’t born with. But for the rest of us who aren’t Emma Stone, keep it natural. A good resource to check out would be InStyle’s guide to finding the best hair colour for your skin tone.
Likewise, your eyebrows should match your hair colour. Don’t even get me started on this.
- Trends don’t last forever.
I mean, come on now. Do you still see people walking around rocking frosted tips?
Despite my attempts to convince you otherwise, if you do wish to colour your hair, I highly recommend checking out Oprah’s 7 Tricks to Keep Color-Treated Hair Healthy.
Finally, I’d like to end this off by asking if you’ve ever had a hair colour mishap. If so, how did you handle it? Also, feel free to share any hair regrets, we’ve all been there.
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