In my late teens, I used to dye my hair red every now and then. I never dyed it permanently and I never dyed it an unnatural red. I didn’t dye it because I was a rebellious teenager – I really wasn’t. I just liked having red hair. My dad has red hair and my natural hair color is a sort of golden/strawberry blonde, depending on light and daytime. Add my blue eyes and a few freckles to the mix, and red hair doesn’t look unnatural on me (obviously, depending on the type of red).
Now here is a thing: while I don’t consider myself very blessed in the looks department, I do love my hair color and eye color. I realize that I am lucky in that my natural hair color is not that undefinable dishwater blonde, which we call stray dog blonde in German (not that that makes it sound any more favorable – no offense to all you dishwater blondes out there!), but a color that many people can only get by dyeing their hair.
Being that I love my natural hair color, I don’t ever dye my hair permanently nor do I plan to. Because I know that will inevitably require me to deal with visible roots or having to bleach my hair and then dyeing it in my natural hair color. Which would damage my hair in ways I do not want.
I am pretty low-maintenance when it comes to my hair. I wash & condition it every day or two, and blow dry it, but that’s it. My last hair cut was last summer, and it was cut by my mom (as per usual). I always get a cut that won’t need a trim every few weeks. I do straighten it sometimes, but I usually get tired of it before it’s perfectly straight, so it usually ends up looking the same (or nearly the same) as it does naturally.
I am not one of those girls with perfect hair, and most days I wear it in a ponytail. I don’t know much about different hair styles, and the messy bun is an absolute mystery to me.
In the past few years I have hardly ever dyed my hair. I think part of that is because I have become more accepting of myself over time, including my hair color. I am happy being a blonde – something I don’t think I always was. We all know the myriad of blonde jokes out there and while I realize they are jokes, they, along with derogatory comments about blondes that so many people make thoughtlessly all the time, did get to me.
But that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped thinking of red as an absolutely gorgeous hair color. And in the past few weeks, two years after the last time I dyed my hair, I had been wanting to dye my hair again. For a while, I was thinking that I couldn’t because I’d be applying for jobs soon and I need to have my natural hair color in the application pictures and for interviews. But now that I am sure I won’t be applying for jobs until I am done with my exams (I simply don’t have the time and energy for job hunting right now), I figured I’d take the chance.
And maybe, just maybe this also has a little to do with my current girl crush who has the most gorgeous hair ever.
The change isn’t as drastic as I had expected and I think that some people will not even notice it unless I tell them, but I do my new hair color (golden copper). I also love how shiny my hair looks and I was surprised to see how much longer it looks compared to three months ago. But see for yourself …
Do you dye your hair? Why (not)?
You have SUCH pretty, shiny, healthy hair! Mine’s ridiculous and unruly lol (but that’s probably from years of dye and straightening!) I’d like to see it from the front – and lady you are very pretty indeed. It looks fabulous from what I can see :)
.-= Emily Jane’s last blog post: Lean On Me =-.
I put a picture of my new hair on Facebook (it’s my profile picture), but if you are on Flickr, I’d also love to add you there – I have a few pictures up on there of the new hair. I am still undecided about putting pictures of myself on this blog where you can recognize me, that’s why I only put up this one for now.
It looks like a strawberry blond now. :) I adore strawberry blond hair. Very lovely.
The first time I have dyed (well, put highlights in) my hair was when I was 17 and in the US. Ever since I had been dying and highlighting my hair constantly going from blond to brown and back to blond. However, the last time I went to the hair stylist for a new color was in January 2009. Now that I cut off all my hair (well, it is back to shoulder length), I am back to my natural color and I love it. :)
.-= Stefanie’s last blog post: Patience. Oh, patience. =-.
That’s great! Hooray for sticking to your natural color, that is pretty much what I was doing until a couple of days ago. I think I’d like to try highlights sometime but right now I’m too cheap for that (no way would I try doing them on my own, disaster waiting to happen) and I don’t know if I would want to get permanent highlights (and if they’re not permanent I don’t know if it would be worth it).
I’ve been dyeing my hair – on and off – since I was 17. I used to dye it myself at home and I used a lot of reddish tones when I was a teenager. Now I get my hair dyed at the hair salon (expensive, but probably better for your hair) and I usually go with a brown base tone and then occasionally get some highlights (mostly in the summer).
I think your hair looks very pretty. I like the little red hint in the color.
.-= san’s last blog post: Things you wouldn’t know… =-.
Thanks San! Yeah, I sometimes wonder if red is a little too cliche to dye my hair in, if you know what I mean, because it seems everyone has done that at some point, but at the same time, I know brown would not work for me (though I kind of wish it did, haha), and I wouldn’t want to get a different blonde from mine as I like the blonde the way it is. So red it is.
The colour looks great. A little hint of red – but still natural. Good choice! :)
Thanks, Sheela! :)
It’s totally longer! I love gold tones.
Miss, I’d totally forgotten to add your new blog to my bloglines – no wonder I haven’t seen updates lately. It wasn’t until I changed my twitter over (to breathegently!) that I remembered… anyway!
The blog is changing too… so just thought I’d stop by and STOP being a stranger.
Hooray for new blogs. And glad you finally added my blog to Bloglines. I’ve done that with a blog or two (forgotten to add them) and was missing their new posts all the time.