The dye job, part III

That color is killer!

Oh, how I love it! I just need some streaks to really give the hair personality and then...I'll be done with coloring for a awhile.

It's crazy how much BETTER I feel with color. I look in the mirror and I just feel...more attractive. Lightening the hair, I think, compliments my skintone. Dark brown hair can be so harsh and just....expected. And can I be honest? Boring. And when it comes to my hair, I am anything but that.

I used Clairol's Miss. Clairol in Sunberry.



I didn't even mean to choose this color! I thought I picked up a brown but it wasn't until I had this stuff on my head and it started turning red until I realized, "Opps...I dun picked up the WRONG one."

I wasn't too upset about it..I wanted to go brown but red wouldn't kill me.

I did my research on how to mix the permanent hair dye and developer. I was kinda nervous about this because I have never done it before. They say you should only go to professionals for stuff like that but I don't know what it is about me...I never mind experimenting with color on my hair. Which is a both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because my hair always comes out alright and a curse because one day it may not.

But we digress. The developer.....


I learned a lot in this permanent dye experience. The number at the bottom of the developer means how much PULL you want from the dye. Does that make sense? The numbers range from 10-40 (I think) with 10 meaning you don't want your hair to change THAT much. The lady at Sally's Beauty Supply told me 10 should be okay for me.

And no offense to her expertise but she was a White girl with straight hair she even admitted to me that she wasn't too knowledgeable about "natural hair". So I took her advice with a grain of salt and got the 30.

Besides, I'm a rebel anyway and following rules make me nauseous. ;)

I measured the developer and the color and put it in a bottle...



Put that mess all over and donned a shower cap on top. I probably could have gone with TWO bottles of color and you'll see why in a minute.

I let the color sit for a good hour and checked it every 10 minutes or so. I washed it out and it wasn't until then I realized....I didn't have any CONDITIONER!

You ever want to curse yourself out? Yeahhh.....that was me. Then I remembered I had that good ole' Trader's Joe conditioner (yes, Amina I still have it and LOVE it). I rinsed thoroughly and washed with castile soap. I don't think this was the best selection simply because my hair was already dry from the dye and we all know how CLEAN castile soap can get the hair and body. But it ended up working well. After conditioning for a good 30 minutes I did minor re-twisting with palm rolling. This took NO time because a lot of my roots are latched so I just palm rolled the loc for neatness.

And I braided them down to get the crinkly effect. Which worked this time! But that mess takes 10 years to do and 10 years to take out so er uhh....won't be doing that often. Even though I LOVED the way it looks. And 3 days later and the crinkles are still gorgeous.


See how brown my hair is?



But because I'm NOT a professional I was remiss in distributing the dye evenly all over. So some of the back locs are still dark brown/black.


Boo. But whatev. I am still oh so satisfied. Next month I think I'll dye a few locs in the front just for the funky factor and I PROMISE, I'm done.

Do I recommend doing this?

You know your comfort zone. Some people feel comfortable dyeing their own hair. Some don't. If you have any reservations then you should definitely get it done professionally. I've been dyeing my natural hair for quite some time now so I felt as if I had done enough research and planning to do it. And I have zero regrets.

Color is my locs' best friend.

....and I would like to add that my hair isn't dry in the least. Not one bit. Moisture is the key when it comes to hair color so I have to come up with a regime that will ensure that my locs aren't a dry and crispy mess.

Stay tuned for that....

Peace and loc've