A Henna Lover’s Bright Red Head Dreams

When I big chopped four and a half months ago, I felt as if I was so ready for this journey. I was reading all the right blogs and talking the lingo with the best of them. I dived head first into the deep end of natural hair care, doing my first henna only three weeks after I big chopped. I know some folks years later after their own big chop still afraid of the henna beast. I figured I better try everything I want to try when my hair is so short, as I could always cut off any mistakes and start anew. What I didn’t know was just how permanent henna was. Though I love the results I got with henna in terms of strength and conditioning, I wasn’t prepared for the roadblock of not being able to change my hair color at my whim! I’ve been through three color applications so far after my first henna and this is as bright as I’ve gotten:

I’m at some type of copper color which doesn’t tickle my fancy much. It’s much too tame for me. And even though someone stopped me just this past weekend in the supermarket to ask me where I got my hair colored, I’m just not satisfied with this color. Its been over one month now since I did anything to my hair except wash and deep condition. I decided to let it breathe for a bit before I let my stylist pull out the big guns to go up against the great henna gods. I’ve set an appointment to have my hair bleached and then rinsed with a fabulously flaming red. All week long I’ve been using aloe in my hair in preparation. Who will win?!?!?!

So we’re pressing on the fast forward button a couple days later when I woke up with hair looking like this:

Something out a cartoon! I purposely wore a green dress to go do it too, not smart just in case there were any mishaps but red and green go great together tee-hee. My head was on fire and I loved it. But, yes, it was a bit extreme. I love that last shot from right above but my hairline didn’t look that great to me and something had to be done. She spent extra time with the peroxide on my hairline to ensure uniformity since it had grown out and was black but it looked like this:

I used the black sash to try and tone it down since I was headed to a conference right after. I may have walked into the place looking like my head was on fire:

Unreal right? LOL this was me out and about that night:

Looking like I’m bout ready to serve up some Old Fashioned Hamburgers smh! LOL when you have such a bold and daring colour in your head, confidence is the only way to go so I strapped that bow in my head, put on my biggest smile and hit the road. You just gotta love it. Notice how I now had bangs? Yes all that peroxide did stretch my hair somewhat but I think I came out of the whole experience without much damage. More on how later but first, how I look now.

I will admit, it was a bit much even for me. I had to get it toned down but I was in no way ready to part with the glorious flames of red. I just wanted my hairline to behave a little better because while the peroxide took nicely, the red rinse not so much so my hairline is a mixture of black baby hairs, blonde and fire engine red. I went out and bought a box colour to put on the front of my hair to try and create a bit of a synergy.

What I look like right now:

On fire. My hairline still refuses to be anything but blonde. Red dye be damned. Did I get what I want? I’m not sure what I was going for. I saw a women just days before with a real ruby red and I didn’t like it. This red-orange I didn’t really picture either but I think I love it. My hairline is just holding me back from really being great. People are normally darker at the roots not lighter and so it’s freaking me out a little but as it grows out I’m pretty sure I’ll love it even more. Will I keep the red up? Nawl. I LOVE the blonde that’s underneath all this red and when its time to colour again I will for sure be keeping that blonde. But I wanted to try red while my hair was short so it wouldn’t be a huge commitment if I didn’t like it and wanted to switch it up again without much damage.

The day I put the box colour over my hair to tone it down, I followed that with a deep treatment of egg, honey, aloe vera and wheat germ oil. My hair bounced right back and feels healthy, soft and is super shiny. I just got an avocado too for this weekend’s deep treatment. I’m going hard with the love on it after stripping it endless times with all this colour. So…whaddya think? Do you love it or will it have to grow on you too?

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