Charm Citizen

The third time is a charm they say but in this case the third time means I’m becoming a regular stylist for my kids. With Picture Day scheduled for Monday, the kids decided they wanted to color their hair. This is the third time I’ve colored Farah’s hair so I’m starting to learn little tricks and knowing what questions I should be asking when we go to Sally’s Beauty to pick up supplies. I also caved in to the endless whining agreed to color, but not bleach, my youngest daughter Kendall’s hair. She is only seven years old so I’m not crazy about the idea of dyeing her hair or even dealing with her complaints during the process Id applying and rinsing the dye. I figured I would add some “ombré-esque” accents to my hair using leftovers from our Unicorn Bleach Party kit while I was at it. We stopped at a Sally’s Beauty supply shop last night in Baltimore County when leaving a friend’s house and took the opportunity to ask lots of questions from the knowledgeable clerk. I’ve learned something new each time I go to get more products. For instance, I now know that my daughter’s teal color faded out too soon the last time, because I washed her hair afterwards with shampoos containing sulfites which strip away things like product build up and apparently hair dye. Lesson learned!

This time, Farah selected Ion Emerald semi-permanent dye for her color. We skipped bleaching this time because we’ve already bleached her ends twice before and they are still pretty light. We followed the instructions to wash her hair beforehand, applied the dye and let it sit on her hair under a shower cap for 30 minutes. I rinsed her hair (no shampoo) with cool water and then used the blowdryer so she could see the result right away. She was super happy.

For Kendall’s first time, I used Unicorn’s My Valentine red shade. I told her not to be disappointed if it didn’t show up dramatically since I did not want to bleach her hair at only 7 years old. she only wanted to do sections in the front of her hair so it didn’t take as long to apply or rinse out. When we were done, it only showed a subtle purplish red color where we dyed it. I think she was a little disappointed but still happy I let her do it. I told her we might be able to see a little better in the daylight. Unfortunately, our cat Shadow got into the trash a little when we were dyeing her hair and got a little pink color on his fur in his ear and above his eye. Crazy cat!

To help pass the time, and also while I was making a mess anyway, I bleached some front sections of my hair to create an Ombré look. I get nervous that I’m going to fry my hair or it will end up too light so I only kept the bleach on my hair for about 10 minutes. Perhaps more exciting, I used Eva Hair NYC Brass to Sass Blue Shampoo and Conditioner for extra insurance against brassiness on my DIY hair color. I liked the lightening effect that blew her had on my hair but I wish I would have been brave enough to keep it on my hair a little longer.

I am happy we averted any disasters this time and it gives me the encouragement to keep trying new and bolder things with hair.