Vanity

[smokingboot]

There are times in every woman's life, when she looks in the mirror and says to herself; Well my girl, you've really done it this time.

I could apply this to my entire last week, but for now I will focus on one unimportant yet unmissable catastrophe; my hair.

It started with that professional colourist november_girl took us all to. I swear to god, I was just inspired by being declared a 'Clear Winter' type. The lady advised me abandoning my fading red tints and going back to my normal colour, which to be honest, is a pretty pointless dark brown. I decided to go for it, and went for a tint which, on the packet, looked the colour I remember my hair being (bear in mind I haven't worn my natural hair colour since the year 2000)

Those packet fronts can be deceptive can't they? It's not dark brown. It's black. Really black. Not that fabulous oriental blue-black that shines against the skin, not that Indian lustre that always looks so alluring you want to bury your face in it. No, this is stark black hair against a stark white face. I'm a goth, decades after it was cool.

I have always sworn I would never do this; hard black hair has no mercy and can make one look utterly ridiculous. The worst offenders I have seen include an acquaintance from Cambridge and Prince Charles, both guilty of not dying pallid eyebrows to match inky heads, with the effect of making the eyes look like eggs in water.

I have tried all sorts of make-up with it. Right now, I am wearing a little soft pale foundation, soft pale blusher, soft pale eyeshadow and enough eyeliner to rival the Human League all piled into one gigantic pencil. Without the lipstick, I can kid myself it has a certain Carry On Cleo charm. With the lipstick I have what can most charitably be described as an evening look. I am very tempted to go and lie down next to my sleeping darling, and wake him up by staring at him; I'm convinced I could make him scream and hit the ceiling, even from a horizontal start.

So, OK, it's only going to take a few rinses and it will become less, well, just less. If it carries on looking this harsh, I'll just bung a beautiful bloody damson colour on top. Never mind what the lady says, I should stick to purple/ red on my hair. People talk about the chemicals from these things seeping into one's brain: clearly in my case, it's far too late to worry.

Comments

[thru-her-lens.livejournal.com]

It's never nice when packets lie to you about hair colour, hope it gets less harsh soon! *hugs*

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*Laughs, hugs back*

Well, I must have just misjudged the original darkness of my hair. And the name didn't help; 'Brazilia' sounds dark brown doesn't it? Hardly black at all...

[velvet-the-cat.livejournal.com]

oh dear!

You could always just go the whole hog and go goth with the make-up too...

Or is that not a helpful suggestion? ;o)

Anyway, I should not mock - I have plans for mine before Venice, but they involve a gentler henna-based treatment that allegedly can be covered with another one if I don't like the colour. We'll see, I guess, in a couple of weekends time!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Going completely goth may be my only recourse; I prefer myself without the lipstick when I am this pale. I'll be doing the whole cover up thing in a couple of weeks, when this has faded a bit. Right now it is being vehemently black at me. Are you going deeper brown or more red?

[velvet-the-cat.livejournal.com]

"Are you going deeper brown or more red?"

I'd rather not say just yet... in case it doesn't work out right and have to resort to a cover of the original. I'll no doubt 'fess up after I've done the deed!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I look forward to seeing the results. Henna is gorgeous stuff and whatever you do, the result is sure to be lustrous and glossy; only reason I don't use it is cos it's viciously monogamous, and combining it with chemical colourants is a recipe for disaster beyond my capacity to laugh away!

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Oh poor you1 I hate it when that happens.

I'm sure she said burgundy would be good though, didn't she?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

She felt that if I was going to have any shade of red rather than brown, the burgundies would be best, and of course, she's quite right about that - I love those shades. I am going to have to get this fringe cut straight too...it looks very odd right now. Russ is being very gallant about it!

[erestania.livejournal.com]

As he should be. Besides, I'm sure he is perfectly aware of the possibility of full withdrawl of partner priviledges if he was tactless enough to snigger.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*Grins* very true! But he has taken tact a step beyond the necessary and told me that if it was actually bad, he would say so and happily drive me around Manchester looking for a hairdresser to set it right. Which reassures me until I look in a mirror...

[squeezypaws.livejournal.com]

Oh poot. Never mind, I'm sure it will all work out in the wash, as 't'were. If its any comfort the gorgeousest red hair I ever achieved was henna on top of black dye, something about the dark starting colour made the subsequent red good and deep and glossy.

Failing that Accessorise still have some great discounts on stylish tweedy fedoras.... I'm not helping am I?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

*Grins* I can see myself now, trailing up the isle behind you and Lisa, flowers from my bouquet stuck around the rim of my fedora...

the red dye is much more likely. Interesting to hear that you found this lovely effect from a combination of Henna and a chemical dye; I thought there was nothing deadlier for one's hair. *Recalls terrible tales of tresses dyed grunge green by such experiments*