Hair Bleach Color Scare

Ah, the world of hair colors. Do you ever tire of the same old hair? Well, sometimes we all need a change at one time or another. A new haircut is always a nice option but somehow it still may not look right. Perhaps it is the color. I started to color my own hair when I was seventeen. The big thing for me then was being an ultimate light shade of pale blonde. I managed to achieve it but I knew little about proper coloring let alone taking care of chemically altered hair. All I cared about was being the “Blondie” type. I'm naturally a brunette. The process of achieving a pale blonde shade on such dark hair was such an accomplishment for me at the time. Through the years I would jump from color to color depending on my mood at those times. I have been almost every color under the sun. There were many errors along the way that produced undesirable hair colors. That would mean a quick trip to the drug store to quickly fix the mess as soon as possible. Some may ask, “why didn't you just go to the salon ?” I actually did the very first time I was interested in obtaining a light hair color. However, I did not like the results afterward. The color in my hair went too gold and brassy because the hairdresser did not bleach it light enough to begin with. I decided to fix it myself. It came out a nice pale beige color and I was temporarily happy with it at the time. However, I wanted to go even lighter and brighter, almost white. I obtained that extreme of a hair color but with great consequences. I left the bleach on too long on already lightened hair. As I rinsed the bleach off, I could see clumps of hair that had washed out as well. I gently dried my hair but it was almost impossible to comb. It felt like artificial hair found on dolls. Well, after such a heavy bleaching, my hair could literately be pulled off my head like cotton candy. My head had only about half the amount of hair left on it. The top of my hair broke off about an inch from the scalp and I looked like a punk rocker. I actually started laughing about it but at the same time I was frightened half to death. My mom had advised me to color it back dark so it would look fuller and thicker. So, I did just that and used a dark brown hair dye. I was basically right back where I started but was left with only a head full of severely damaged fibres. It took about six months for my hair to grow out enough to look better. So, that was the end of my blonde faze for awhile. I went from being “Blondie” to almost “Baldie”. Whew!, that was close enough to almost to warrant a wig.