So, there goes that lovely illusion that Beauty Editors can’t make mistakes. Anyone who thinks otherwise just needs to take a long at my poor, tortured tresses, hanging limp and lifeless after a week-long descent into over-processing hell 
Afternoon of 22 June: Down in the dumps and in advanced stages of desperately-need-a-pick-me-up-beauty-therapy syndrome, I impulsively decide to get brand new hair. Three shades lighter base colour, reddish-brown highlights, caramel blonde lowlights… the whole hog. All despite the fact that I had gone two shades lighter just two months back. Cost: Approximately Rs. 6,000 (US$110) for my medium-length hair.
Morning of 23 June: Hubby wakes up in terror, confronted by a freakily orange-blonde woman with brassy streaks running through her hair lying next to him. Fortunately (for him) it wasn’t some random stranger picked up in the night. Unfortunately (for me) it was my own hair, which had decided to really go the whole hog by showing me just how bad hair colouring can get when taken to extremes. Cue: Panicked call to hair dresser… “I can’t step out of the house looking like a very, very crazy redhead-turned-peroxide-blonde. Help!!!!!”
Morning of 24 June: Rush to the other end of the city, given soothing mint tea by said hair dresser (wanted tranquillisers but apparently the problem was not that irreversible). An hour-and-a-half of washing, toner and deep conditioning later, hair is a nice caramel brown colour. I like! Cost: Rs. 1,500 (US$30)
Morning of 25 June: Run brush through hair to find it coming out in clumps. What strands remain on my head are so brittle and frizzy and brillo-like that I can only tie a scarf over the whole mess and run back to the parlour.
Evening of 25 June: Four hours and a maxed-out credit card get me a keratin treatment, which not only smoothes and relaxes the tresses but also literally fills in cracks and gaps in the uber-damaged hair shaft, thereby strengthening and making it more resilient. Yup! Hair is finally looking smooth and shiny but… nobody told me that keratin strips the hair colour. The result? Freaky yellow-blonde strands, a cancelled dinner party as friends refuse to be seen with me in public and renewed wailing in front of the hair dresser. By now, I am this close to just shaving everything off, going bald and literally starting with a clean canvas. Would you blame me for the thought? Cost: Rs. 9,000 (US$160)
Afternoon of 27 June: Second round of washing, toner and deep conditioning. Another two hours of my life that I won’t get back and second credit card sent to rehab. but, finally, hair looks somewhat human. It’s a nice caramel colour (not exactly what I originally wanted but close enough – and I am definitely not taking any more chances) and the keratin hasn’t been destroyed by this touch-up. So, the sleekness remains. Touch wood! Though my scalp burns and my hair is significantly thinner than it was five days back. Plus, the ends are so fried by now that I will have to chop them off very soon Cost: Rs. 1,500 (US$30)
Lesson learnt
There is only so much abuse that hair can take before it rebels. And when it does decide to teach you a lesson, say goodbye to any chances at sanity, a social life (unless you don’t mind people pointing and shrieking with laughter), the ability to look into a mirror sans tranquillisers, hours and hours and hours and hours of your life that are now spent coaxing the strands out of their sullen deadness, credit card debt that needs to be hidden from hubby unless you want a divorce… need I go on? No?
I don’t know about you but I am now religiously going to follow these do’s and don’ts of hair colouring that have been handed to me by the country’s top experts. Well! Actually sanity would dictate I don’t as much as put a toe in a hair colouring zone from now on but we all know that resolution won’t go the distance for too long 
The Do’s & Dont’s of hair colour
Honour thy hue: Use your current colour (even if it’s dyed) as a gauge and never lighten or darken more than two shades at a time. If you are aiming for a more dramatic change, do it gradually – this will help you in adjusting to the new look and you can easily back out if it starts looking too OTT.
Do a strand test: Since everyone’s hair has varying levels of pigment and porosity, a dye can give different results on different people. So, save yourself after-colour anguish (and a hefty colour-correction bill) by doing a strand test on your under-layer before colouring your whole head.
Assess the state of your strands: If your hair is dry and/or has split ends, steer clear of hues lighter than your current colour until you can nurse your mane back to health. Going lighter will strip strands and weaken hair even further. A darker shade will add richness, helping to mask hair damage.
Coddle your curls: Colouring curly hair is a delicate business – because it’s naturally dry and porous, it absorbs colour faster and is more susceptible to damage than straight hair.
Don’t shampoo right before dyeing: The natural oils in your scalp will help hydrate and protect during the colouring process. A week before colouring, treat your hair with an intensive conditioner to strengthen the tresses. And remember to get all split ends chopped off before you dye as damaged hair will soak in more colour and look uneven.
Say no to over-processing: Try and keep at least four months between colour jobs, especially if you are going lighter, as dyeing it too often can make hair weak and brittle. In a pinch, go darker – adding colour isn’t as stressful to your strands since you aren’t stripping away any natural pigment.
Don’t trash thy tresses: Ordinary shampoos will fade colour, so choose those formulated for colour-treated tresses and pamper with an intensive conditioner at least once a week to prevent strands from becoming brittle. The more you baby your hair, the better it maintains new colour.
Skip the flat iron: Don’t overuse heated appliances on coloured tresses. And protect them from the sun by using protective styling products that contain UV filters (try Kerastase Reflection Chroma Protect Polishing Cream, Rs. 1100 or L’Oreal Professionnel’s Tecni.Art Color Show Liss Cream, Rs. 490). Chlorine is another hair colour killer, so wear a cap while swimming and shampoo immediately afterwards.
Do you have a hair disaster tale? What happened? And how did you get over it? Do share – after all, misery loves company!!!!
Oh lordie. Why? why? why? whyyyyyyyyyy??? I am going to remember this story and re-read it a gazilion times the next time I have an urge to colour my hair blue. (no not that blue…that nice midnight blue…sheesh) Hang in their girlie. It will be back to normal soon
Woman, you will NEVER EVER colour your hair. Consider it a command! The whole reason I got into this mess was because of being so envious of your gorgeous hair that I needed mine to look good as well
Not kidding.
Oh boy, have I had one of these, except yours was definitely on a grander scale!
To start, I have light brown/dirty blonde hair that bleaches itself VERY easily in the sun. I took the patient approach to correction, so this whole ordeal has been going on for a little over a year and a half now.
At the time I was a college freshman, and being 18 years old, I think I know everything there is to know about the world. So one day I convince my roommate to box dye my hair a natural looking red, but more on the auburn side since I don’t want to come out looking like my hair is on fire. So the first box of Garnier goes in, and it actually makes my hair blonder, which didn’t look bad, but it wasn’t what I wanted. Irritated, I went back to the store the same night, purchased a copper red from L’Oreal, had my roommate redo my hair and VIOLA! I’d have to say I was one of the lucky one because it came out just as I wanted it.
Touch up time:
Over the next month or two, my hair did however turn into a carrot red, but this time I thought I would be smart and actually take myself somewhere to get it done. The colorist doing my hair, however, thought I would look better with a subtle blood red hue in my locks, which at first I did like…until the next day. My friends and I went out to watch my friend get a tattoo at a parlor on the beach, and guess whose hair was massively effected by the sun? THIS GUY. I spent the next 2 days crying about how I had just spent $125 for new hair that I messed up. In retrospect, it didn’t look awful, but not the same as the day before (and also I was 18 and poor and couldn’t believe I spent $125)
Touch up ROUND 2:
A month or so after that ordeal, I mosey my way back over to box dyes and my roommate convinces me to try a Garnier box dye again, even though it didn’t even get close to accurate the first time. The result? My bangs apparently saturated the dye much more than any other part of my head, so I had flaming blood red hair in the front that progressed to sort or red/brown in the back. Horrified, I tried to only dye the back for it to barely take the color because my hair was just so damaged and probably saturated in crappy shampoo or conditioner. There was nothing I could do, so for the next month I just took the shame in all my classes of looking ridiculous, and got a stern talking to from my mom when I arrived home with my hideous hair.
Correction:
Once brought to my normal hair stylist at home, despite the language barrier of her less than fluent English and my less than fluent Spanish, I could see the disapproval screaming from her eyes. Apparently, Garnier is the absolute worst because for some reason the dye just doesn’t come out. Also, apparently Pantene is also horrid for your hair, especially colored hair. That being said, she had to bleach my hair TWICE to try and get most of it out, and it was still sort of in there regardless. On top of the bleach, we opted to dye my hair a darker brown to cover up the discoloration, and I swear I’ve never seen more unhealthy hair in my life. It looked dull, lifeless and truly depressing. Luckily with a keratin enriched conditioner and my hair’s natural ability to whore itself out to the sun, it lightened up in a month or so to reveal that it still very much so had the Garnier red hiding in it.
Summer:
At this point, everyone had seen me at my worst, so I decided I would just let my hair do it’s thing, let it grow out, and once I couldn’t stand it any more I would get it corrected. At first, all the sun bleaching turned it to a carrotish orange as my roots were starting to grow in, and then finally bleached itself out to a chemical blonde. This went on for about…6 months. I decided I would rather grow all the unhealthy hair out than trying to dye it over and over to cover the mistake that would just keep surfacing every month or so. I cannot BELIEVE I let myself look absolutely ridiculous like that for so long, but I kept telling myself “IT’S FOR THE HEALTH OF YOUR HAIR!!!”
Salvation:
Finally concluding that I had waited long enough, a friend of mine turned me onto one of his stylists who was in her late twenties, spunky and punky, and a genius in the hair world. She took one look at my hair and basically recited it’s history, and also let me know that the keratin conditioner I had been using to help my hair ended up damaging it more: overuse makes your hair brittle and stiff, as in, easier to break. I decided the best approach was to cut off as much hair as possible resulting in a bit shorter than shoulder length so that I still had a good length, and she decided the best approach was to match my roots as close as possible and dye my whole head, which I was weary to, but I trusted her judgement.
To my luck, she was absolutely right, and I hadn’t seen my hair look that good in a year!!! On top of that, what should have been a $150 ordeal she cut down to $75, so I gave her the nicest tip of my life! It felt moisturized and healthy, cute, manageable and different; I was in heaven! Not to mention due to the nature of my hair, it even took on a natural subtle ombre just out of random happenstance, and the dye didn’t fade out as fast like every single one of my other dye jobs.
It was definitely a learning experience.
I still have the urge to dye my hair funky colors, but I’ve settled with synthetic clip-in hair extensions and go for the peak-a-boo streak approach. At least with extensions you have the option of taking them out at the end of the day!
Allyson, that sounds hooooorible!!!! I can just imagine the agonies you must have gone through is your hair on the path to recovery now? Mine is getting frizzy again but I am just going to let it grow out now – can’t bear to have it touched now. Btw, do you blog? You have just a great writing style!
Wow sorry to hear this, I am a hair stylist for a very high end salon and have had many new clients walk in with awful damaged hair color.. Do’s and dont’s def apply but the major thing is to find a person you trust because none of that should have happened in the first place and for anyone reading this page if it does happen to you and a stylist has no idea what she’s doing and unfortunately ruins your hair don’t you dare pay another dime for the changes she or has to make to fix it! Good luck ladies and to find someone who is skilled there’s always a good tip, if your around shopping in your town and you see a woman’s hair that you like ask her where she got it done and if you hear the same persons name 3 times usually she’s good !
Thanks so much Andrea and would love to hear more from you on haircare – which is something I need so badly. Unfortunately, I can’t blame the stylist in my case. She is super-great and has been doing my hair for more than a decade now without any problems. This time it was solely my pig headedness that landed me in this mess – and she didn’t even charge a cent to do any of the fixes
Lesson learnt: you have to find a great stylist and LISTEN to them!!!!