Gentlemen prefer Sars
Sorry for the sporadic updates of late; between Bean’s wedding, the cold I came down with the very minute she was safely married, AIDS Walk fun times (awesome job, Angela and Team Supersnack!), bleaching my hair, and jury duty, I’ve had a pretty eventful couple of weeks over here.
The question of whether blondes really do have more fun remains, for me, unresolved (did I mention the jury duty? I see I did), but the question of whether I look good as a blonde is closed: I do not. On the plus side, because my hair is basically wrecked, it’s all fluffy and it holds the style really well now. Also, I still have hair; compared to other tonsorial fund-raising stunts, this one was a cakewalk. (Thanks to Gwenn for her coloration skills, and Allison for the relaxing rinse.) On the minus side…I am just really not a blonde. Pictures after the jump.
Suggestions on a good semi-permanent rinse welcomed with open arms.
I dyed my hair because my team and I reached our goals — so thank you so very much to all of you who helped me/us do that, and to everyone who came out on Friday night in the rain.
Tags: city living friends photo essay
Honestly, I think it looks good. I’ve seen many a worse blonde than you are.
You can definitely pull it off.
Yeah, I actually would vote for keeping it for a while. It looks really good in those pictures. Aaaaand that now makes you the second person today that I’ve advised to stay blonde. Which is weird, cause one of the things I loved about moving from Texas to New York was that there were so many more brunettes like me around. But I think the color is really flattering on you.
Agreed w/ Erin.
I agree with Erin — I think you make an attractive blonde, Sars. I think the lighting in the first picture is a little harsh and washes everything out, but in the second shot? You’re gorgeous. Don’t sell yourself short.
Good lord, woman, they gave you jury duty AGAIN?? Seems like only yesterday that you wrote about your last legal adventure.
As for the hair situation, dude. Hie thee to a salon. For serious. You don’t want to end up with it more damaged than the bleach already managed. That said, that second picture of you is lovely.
I agree. I really like the second photo. The first is not at all representative of you, but there’s something really soft about your face in the second one. You just look peaceful. Not *dead* peaceful, just generally really happy and content and glowy. If that’s all the hair color talking, I say, “Keep it!”
If it’s not, then I want that photographer to follow me around for the rest of my life.
It’s medium light where it’s really problematic — in super-bright or dim lighting, it looks white, which is okay, but in other lights it looks too orangey to me. I need a nice tan to really work it, but my dermatologist has forbidden such a thing (and I forgot to say: I had another goddamn mole taken off last week — gah!).
@banshee: I know you’re right — it feels like hay, even when it’s wet — but it hasn’t had this much body since I was in high school. (And, um, had fried it with Sun-In.)
I was about to say. The second pic. is hot. It’s totally up to you if you want to change it back, but I have to add my opinion to the others here and say, consider keeping it for a little while.
It’s cute!
I would also vote for keeping the blonde, but I agree with missbanshee, if you are going to recolor go to a salon.
Definitely go and get the whole damage thing dealt with – I know what you mean about the body, but really, would you rather have it fall out? My sister can tell you that is a bad BAD thing.
As for the colour – if you really don’t like it (and I think liking or not liking is really personal so my liking it (which I do) probably won’t make you feel better if you don’t) perhaps chuck a few highlights through to mute it while you’re at the salon. It’s coming up to summer over there, though, right? So keep some lightness – you’ll probably feel more summery (not sure that’s a word!).
Adding my voice to those who think you look fantasmic in those pictures, but if you wanted to change the color, maybe have them (at the salon! agree with above poster – take it from someone who dyed her hair pink, you definitely want professionals messing with your already processed hair!) put in a demi (I swear it’s demi, not semi…I think) permanent color but maybe a color somewhere between your old color and this? So that when it fades out, or your hair grows out, it won’t be so obvious, but the change won’t be so drastic?
In other news, given the above mentioned pink hair, I highly recommend Kerastase Bain Miroir shampoo and conditioner. Granted, it’s pricey, but it makes the most fried hair in the world feel like silk. I do not kid.
I really loved the second pic. I would say keep the blonde at least for the summer. Then come September you can turn to the autumn colors of deep red/brown.
I preface this statement with the fact that I am not a hairdresser, I’ve only dyed my hair a couple times, and I’ve never used henna, but… you might want to try henna. I’ve looked into using henna, and my understanding is that it binds to your hair and can help fill in irregularities. Since bleach opens up pits in your hair, that might be a good way to change the color while actually improving the texture of your hair, rather than damaging it further. A lot of people swear by Henna for Hair as a great source of both high-quality henna and real-world tested advice for achieving the color you want–which, according to these people, doesn’t have to be a shade of red. I would wait a couple weeks before trying it, though, because apparently even pure henna can have weird reactions to chemicals used in hair dye.
That said, I agree with other commenters that the blonde works better than you seem to think.
Yo, you crazy, the blond hair looks hot. We were just going through flickr today and Zach commented how well it suits you. Allison got us some conditioner (here tis) and my hair now feels, while not normal, much softer and nicer. You should condition with that a couple of times before deciding. I mean, if I were in charge of your head, that’s what I would make you do.
Related: today a crochet-hatted older woman (possibly crazy) passed me at Barnes and Noble and said, “Wow… purple hair.” I took it as a compliment.
Also related: I think it was a TN reader who got Greta the Bunny to $1000. Thanks, Shannon! (and everyone else who donated! AIDS is icing his balls today in a big way.)
Don’t put Henna on top of synthetic dyes, unless you’re aiming for green, because you could wind up there! (Um, which you could totally rock, Sars, but I get the feeling you’re hoping for the natural spectrum this go-round?)
I had decent luck with Herbal Essences and… um… Feria in the non-red varieties, over bleached-out blonde. The red fades too fast, but the brunettes and darker chocolate browns are really nice, shiny, and both come with fantastic conditioners that help with the fry-damage.
Been there, done that, and then chopped it all off. :)
Super hair! Although, you may not like it because it’s a drastic change. Last summer, I colored my hair a dark, dark brown. It was a huge change and I was overwhelmed by it. Other people told me I looked “great”, but. . .I wasn’t convinced. My stylist solved the problem by turning my hair back to normal, but adding some low-lights. It was a nice compromise.
Perhaps you would like your hair better with some blonde highlights.
Sarah,
I like your blonde hair. I’m a big fan of The Blonde, and am jealous because I just can’t get it as blonde as I used to. (Age does that, you know.)
I’m not sure whether you used color or bleach on your hair, but if you used bleach, please go to a salon for touch-ups or total recoloring. A little damage is great for hair, and I can say from experience that bleached hair can look great, even if it does feel like hay when dry, and overcooked pasta when wet. But bleach does huge amounts of damage to it, and it’s not easy to maintain or repair.
I hate to contradict a fellow commenter, but do not put henna on your hair if it’s been bleached. Colleen is right that it can fill in any irregularities, but your hair will grab whatever the base color of the henna is. It could work, or it could turn out pink, purple, an awful shade of yellow, or green. If you used a permanent color instead, you might have more success. But henna is tricky. And it’s much harder on your hair than most people think. Every hairdresser I worked with hated it, and you might have a hard time finding a salon that even stocks it anymore. Also, a semi-permanent rinse could have the same result.
Solanna, semi- and demi- mean the same thing.
Anyway, I love it. It’s purty.
You’re rocking the blonde, Sars!
Truly – it looks great :D
I’m with pretty much everyone else, I think the blond looks good on you. I would give it a week for you to get used to it before deciding whether to change anything.
Glad to have you back
When henna is a very good thing to make your hair thicker and easier to handle (speaking as someone who has hennaed her hair for fifteen years or more), I would stay absolutely clear from it as long as you have *any* other colour (especially bleach) in your hair, as they don’t go together at all. At least that’s the case the other way round – I would need to wait for it to grow out, if I wanted to use anything else. At least check with a professional first.
You look smashing in those pics! I agree with kiwifee — go to a salon to get it fixed, but keep some highlights or something because it is cute and something a little different.
First of all, you’re a darling blond, Sars, and I really like the cut. Second, when I was blond (naturally brunette) I made a trip to the make-up counter and bought a different color foundation with a little more yellow in it, which helped tons as far as making the bleached hair look more natural. Finally, as far as having more fun, when I first had my hair bleached my friends were pretty much “meh”, but their husbands loved it. Go figure.
I likey. Keep it til the roots start bugging. Get a nice bronzey powder or something, and you’ll be good to go.
To correct orangeyness I believe you need a toner. I’m pretty sure it’s a violet one that you would want. Probably best to get a professional opinion on that.
Jury duty AGAIN? Seriously, weren’t you just there?
I got called for the first time last year, and wow, it sucked. Luckily I wasn’t selected (I wore a shirt with ponies on it, maybe that was why), but wow. Dullest timesuck of my life.
Just to chime in on henna – I’ve done it myself a few times using the Cacas from Lush. The Marron (chestnut-colored) is my favorite, but the Brun is lovely, too. The Rouge and Noir come out pretty natural, too. They all do an excellent job conditioning the hell out of your hair for days after, as well. I’ve never tried them on treated hair myself, although I’ve seen pretty positive reviews (including before/after photos of a former bleached blond) on the Lush henna forum. It isn’t quite a dye, apparently, more like putting colored clingfilm over your hair.
If you do it, you will have to resign yourself to 2-3 hours of wearing what amounts to a small bowl of mud on your head, which is conveniently about the amount of time it’ll take you to clean up your kitchen from the henna prep. And it’s pretty tenacious, so rinsing is an adventure. And not everyone loves the smell. (Verrrrrry herbal.)
But, if you’re feeling adventurous and have an afternoon to kill….
I would suggest finding your nearest Sally Beauty Supply, or the like. I went through a more-than-slight coloring mishap in college. My hair went from brown, to purple, to orange. I went to a ritzy salon to have it fixed, but to no avail. My last ditch effort was Sally Beauty Supply. They were wonderfully helpful, and got my hair back in shape, and the right color.
P.S. – From the photos, the blonde looks lovely.
In terms of how it looks, it looks fabulous. In terms of how you think it looks, or how it makes you feel – you have to be comfortable. I’d worn a blonde wig one Halloween to work, and got tons of “You know, you should really cut your hair and go blonde.” Which meant, I guess, that it looked … okay, but it was a lot of work, dressing up to match it, and I didn’t feel blonde. For the sake of entertainment, if you want, wear it blonde for a week or a month (or not), but then go to a hairdresser and get it changed back professionally. And amen to the do NOT go with henna! You want a nice, professional, carefully-mixed salon color for this. And you want a good colorist for this, as opposed to someone who specializes in cutting. And pass on the bronzing powder, too – that just makes your skin look dirty when you’re as white as we are. You’re not trying to look like Jessica Simpson. Monroe rocked the fair-skinned blonde, so can you.
@Molly: Feels like it, yeah, but it’s actually been six years. Let’s just say there will be a LOT of book reviews going up in the next little while. Heh.
@jocelyn: I henna’ed in college, for a couple of years. It looks and smells like goose poo, but apparently it sheathes the hair shaft so it gives you more body; the problem is with the eventual build-up, which has to be taken off with a…strip rinse, I think it’s called? Anyway, my stylist has been wanting to play with my color for like a year now. She’s going to regret wishing for that, I suspect, now that it’s the equivalent of hair triage.
Hmmm. I agree with the chorus that it looks cute on you, but if you really hate it that much (and/or if it’s really really badly damaged), then I vote for you to just shave it off again. You were a very cute bald lady!! And summer’s coming… maybe? Are we skipping it this year?
Don’t change it! You look awesome. Blonde works for you (and you still look smart, don’t worry). Plus, LOVE the jaunty ‘do.
Kerastase Age Recharge will do amazing things to damaged hair.
(…and it does look cute…)
I agree with going to the stylist and tell them to have fun! I love the cut, too, and it would rock some highlights. :-)
Ah, Sun-In. I had forgotten about the many summers I spent with that producct.
I love it in the 2nd picture…the 1st one with the bright lighting, not so much, but I suspect anyone would look bad in that lighting. I’d stick with it for a while and see if you get used to it. If its just not you, its not, but honestly it looks great.
And can I just put it out there that you keep going to your head/hair for these money-raising things? Which is awesome and all, but I think if we end up raising $1 meeeellion dollars for you (lord knows it could/should happen) we’d deserve a tattoo. Just putting it out there.
And good to know about the demi/semi – thanks!
I’ll join in the chorus of those who think it looks cute, too. But it’s your head so if you’re not happy with it, talk to your hairdresser about ways to change it. Maybe you could put a few low lights through it to make it less bright? That’s what I did when my hairdresser went a little crazy with the highlights a few summers ago and my dark brown hair was almost blonde. (I can’t pull off the blonde because I’m pale as can be and the fake tanner wasn’t cutting it.)
And jury duty again?!? I had that last fall and it was the most gigantic pain in the ass. I didn’t get selected, obviously, but I was there for over 4 hours. Ugh.
Given that you probably have what is loosely defined as ‘normal’ hair (triage notwithstanding), I second the suggestion of Sally Beauty Supply. If it makes you feel any better, at least most people appear to like you as blonde, and at worst you only look somewhat awkward as opposed to my high school self in my full big gay bleach blonde glory.
Sars, I agree with others upthread that it looks pretty good, especially in the second picture. I also like that cut on you; it frames your face really well. That being said, I have to echo others who advise visiting a proper colourist for damage control; in addition to any colour tweaking you might want, they have all kinds of great products that can be baked in under the dome dryers that help make the hair feel more like your untreated hair & less like cotton candy. I’ve been doing red over my natural dead-mouse brown for years, and actually love it when my stylist tells me it’s time for a deep-conditioning treatment – it feels great both during and after.
I have fond memories of a summer at camp that my brother decided to cheap out on lightening his hair by using some unknown drugstore product & wound up looking like a vanilla Ronald McDonald. He then had to spend a wad of dough at the local salon to restore his hair to something vaguely normal-looking, though hats were worn for months afterward. Essentially, if a semi-trained stylist in a two-horse town could rescue that nightmare, a properly trained & supplied one in a town overrun with competent colourists should be able to do great things, so you should go see one.
I’m a typical “Winter” – think CZ Jones or Selma Blair. Anything in the yellow/orange range sucks ass on me. I don’t wear either color, not even yellow gold jewelry; it’s all sterling silver/white gold.
People used to tell me back in my early 20s to “go blonde!!! You should try it!!” So, I’d ask them:
1) Would it be obvious that I dyed my hair? (Me: YES)
2) Would it look good on me, the whitest whitey that ever whited, whose last tan was Ocean City, 1976, age 9? (Me: NO)
Then I’d get a lot of hemming and hawing: “Well, it *might* look good! You never know! And you could go to a tanning salon/get a fake tan/dye your eyebrows/pluck them!”
In sum: I was supposed to spend $$ to go blonde, ruining my hair’s health, so that I would look like ass, so I could spend more $$ trying to change my *entire* appearance, so that I would “go” with my own hair??? Talk about the (pony)tail wagging the dog, my God.
Sars, I say this with great and affectionate love: Me no likey you blonde. My first thought seeing the photos? South Plainfield, high school education, two kids, 1950’s Cape Cod, drives a Chevy, admin assistant in dental office.
Yeeaahh.
What are you talking about???? You look so cute!
So – why are blonde jokes so stupid? So that men get the punch line. -(figured you might need that joke in your snark arsenal, since you’re a blonde now!)
You look **great** as a blonde! (Of course you do – you looked adorable as a tomato, fer chrissakes!)
When my daughter was younger she used cellophanes, because her mean ol mom wouldn’t let her use hair dyes…they bond to the hair & make it radically shiny…but I’m sure it would take some stripping to remove. (If they even make those any more…it was the late eighties back then!)
I think this is like getting medical advice from bloggers – you really should seek the advice & services of a professional.
Sars, that second photo is so great. You have such a classically lovely profile. Next time you get publicity shots taken, make sure they do a few from the side!
“I solemnly swear I am not an employee, intern, contractor, or official office-holder of Tomato Nationâ„¢ or its parent companies, affiliates, or subsidiaries.”
Rowr!
I wouldn’t lie to you about something so serious. But it looks good on you, for real.
I bleached my (dark brown) hair nearly white once, so that I could dye it neon red. So I was a platinum blonde for like 4 hours once. It looked SO WRONG on me, with my pasty skin and my dark brown brows, so I know a little something about Never Meant To Go Blonde. You? You’re pulling it off with panache :D
Oh dude, I so feel you on this one. You and I have similar coloring, and I went through a series of self-inflicted blonde incidents in college. I know exactly what you mean about the orangey look in medium light. Bad news – it will get worse as time goes on and your hair gets drier and drier. Don’t make it worse by self-medicating with anything from a box (one of my attempts to do so made my hair a brilliant purple – thanks, Feria) since you just can’t know how the colors will layer.
See your stylist for some corrective color, and I’d recommend getting some sort of deep conditioning treatment while you’re there. Once you leave, make sure your bathroom is stocked with a good shampoo/conditioner duo for color-treated hair. I like Kerastase myself, but go with what moves you.
Sars, the blonde looks really good on you.
Redken makes a really great repair spray, but I can’t remember the name. It worked well after I fried my own hair with the bleach.
Also, you may want to have your hairdresser use toner again to try and get any lingering brass out. I’m a big fan of Wella’s #118 White Lady, but there’s other good ones out there.
Aw, you guys. I swear to God I was not fishing, so thanks for all the compliments!
@Shotrock: “Sars, I say this with great and affectionate love: Me no likey you blonde.”
The thing is, I no entirely likey *this* blonde. My mother is blonde, but a “dirty” blonde (a term she’s always hated, and I can’t blame her), and I got her fairness, but my dad’s brunette-with-some-red coloring. I don’t know what season that makes me — please chime in if you can tell me — but I do know that an orangey platinum is not quiiiiiite right. Either it needs to be floss-white, which will entail another process and a bluing agent (no thanks), or it has to be greyed down to a darker shade with some much darker lowlights.
I’m kind of liking the blonde.
Sars, your skin colouring as well as your natural hair colour determine the season thing – it has less to do with the pale, and more to do with the undertones, warm or cool. Warms look good in colours with warm undertones (olive greens), cools look good in colours with cool undertones (pine green). You can actually go to http://www.colormebeautiful.com/ for more specific information. It’s why Summers with brown hair look better either with blonde streaks or as ash blondes than they do as redheads. Take a look around, and look in your own wardrobe at the colours you have that make you look terrific. Most of the time, they’ll be the colours people compliment you on. If you would look better as a blonde with more white and less yellow/orange, you’re more likely to be a Cool colour -either Summer or Winter. If you looked OK with the gold/orangey tones, that would be the Spring/Autumn category. I’m thinking … Winter, with that high-contrast dark hair, pale skin going on. But take a look at the website and see for yourself.
Oh, and Cheap Hair Fix: Get yourself a keg of the cheapest Mayo you can find (not Miracle Whip, mayo). When your hair is wet, slather your hair with it, and wrap your hair with Saran to keep the heat in. It’s an excellent cheap oil treatment to help heal your hair; I did it when I fried my hair. Shampoo out and rinse thoroughly so as not to smell like a salad.