intellectual properties

blood red

the color of my hair is a huge topic of conversation, one which i experience every day but haven’t really blogged about much, because it just really makes me feel kind of vain to do so, but the frequency at which i address this topic with the regular public leads me to want to write about it here. at least 2x a day, and i am so not exaggerating, some random stranger tells me they like it or asks me who does it, and then, when i tell them i do it myself, asks me for details on how. sometimes it’s quite rude, without even an introduction, just an intrusion in the grocery line: “how do you get your hair that color?” particularly, a lot of black women tell me they like it, i’m guessing because it’s a pretty impossible color for black women to achieve. today, a woman on the street in downtown oakland said in passing, “girl, that red hair is FIERCE!”

it’s been almost a year now with this color, and i can’t say how much longer it will last. i was a “normal” color red before this; i haven’t been blonde since february 07. outside of the fact that it would take several bleach and toner processes and possibly a lot of time and money to be a decent shade of blonde again, the amount of attention my red hair draws pretty much makes it impossible to consider going back, despite the amount of upkeep this red requires. and then there is the fact that a large percentage of white women ages 18-40 have their hair dyed blonde (sometimes as many as 5 out of 6, as in this photo), or lighter brown with blonde highlights. generally, in terms of fashion and personal style, like to stay out of the majority trend, particularly if it’s a trend preferred by soccer moms. you also won’t find me wearing capri pants and sweater sets.

and it does require a lot of upkeep. i’m sure you’ve seen the girls with punk rock hair that has faded into an orange-y/pink bleached mess. keeping my hair in good condition AND a true punk rock red requires a series of treatments and maintenance products. in summary: every 3 months, i bleach my whole head and do a full fresh coat of color with special effects “blood red” semi-permanent, non-toxic hair color and leave it on for several hours before rinsing. i bleach my whole head because if i try to just do the roots, the end color comes out uneven. every 3-4 weeks, a full head recolor but without the bleach. every 3-4 days, shampoo with a COLOR DEPOSITING red shampoo, such as l’oreal colorist cherry bark shampoo or aveda madder root shampoo, and condition with a color depositing conditioner such as aveda madder root conditioner or bumble and bumble color support for true reds. the “color” shampoos and conditioners you buy at drugstores like walgreens are NOT color depositing (it says so right on the bottle) and will not work to maintain color. i don’t even know what they do; i think it’s a scam. plus, if you’re trying to maintain color and shine, buying cheap shampoos is not an option, as they just strip your hair. sure, salon products are a little more expensive than drugstore brands, but not as expensive as having your hair recolored over and over again in a salon or repairing damaged tresses, so in the end you’re saving yourself money. plus, i like to use more natural product lines like aveda that don’t test on animals in general anyway, even when i don’t color my hair.

i also recently discovered this amazing product from bumble&bumble that, for all you burner girls out there, is JUST LIKE PLAYA DUST. i have fine, straight hair, so going 3-4 days without shampooing sometimes results in a greasy-looking head, but if i wash it more often than that the color fades too fast. this spray on hair powder in red absorbs all the oil in your hair AND texturizes. it DOES have a hella matte effect - just like playa dust - and my hair is NOT shiny afterward, but it’s also not greasy, and way pliable. this can save me a day in shampooing, which, if you’re dealing with a semi-permanent hair color like mine, over the course of a few months is awesome. it’s also awesome for when i’m late for work, or when i really want to work that bed-head look.

so there are all the details and secrets about my hair and what i use and how i maintain my color in a very DIY fashion. i should just print this on a card to hand to all the women who ask me about it at the grocery…it would save a lot of time and maybe save someone else a lot of money too, as the whole process applies to creating and maintaining any sort of non-traditional/non-natural haircolor, and even natural-looking off-the-shelf home-haircolor and salon hair colors need special treatment to stay looking good. it definitely took me a while to figure out the best dye process, what products to use, how often to wash, etc. i’m sure you could pay some salon colorist buttloads of money to do it for you every 2-3 months, but i’m just not down with that, although i’m sure some people would rather pay a salon than deal with the mess of this type of DIY process (note that this type of color STAINS your skin and because it’s semipermanent comes off on your clothes, linens, and a little bit washes out every time you shampoo and so can stain your shower/tub. you also have to use thick gloves and vaseline to keep it from staining your hands/face/neck/arms while coloring, and be sure to cover/protect any surfaces in your bathroom that you don’t want stained, like your sink or floors, and be careful about wearing anything you don’t want stained. this is the part about this color that i’m not sure everyone would want to deal with. it’s hella messy).

because it’s so involved, working on my hair sort of feels like working on an art project, and the satisfaction from getting so many compliments on something you’ve done yourself can’t really be beat. i don’t think i’d enjoy the compliments nearly as much if i was paying someone else to do it for me. i have pride in this hair!