One broke girl on a budget

The biggest change for me since moving out on my own is not spending money on whatever the hell I want. I am no longer shopping every weekend for shoes, handbags, and clothes. I am actually using up my expensive face creams and shampoo before buying new. Food is purchased every couple days to ensure nothing is left to rot and waste in the fridge. I only buy and spend money on things that I absolutely need. Which brings me to my latest disaster.

I've been getting my hair highlighted professionally for about a year now. I wanted a change and decided that blonde highlights would do the trick. On my naturally dark brown hair the highlights are a striking contrast and attractive compliment to my fair-ish skin. Now, I don't normally divulge how much I spend on this or that, it's frankly none of your business. For this conversation though $125 plus tip every six weeks was getting quite expensive. I just don't have the budget for it anymore. With that realization I decided to lighten my roots myself a week ago. 

I am not a novice with at home dye jobs. I've been coloring my hair various shades, including blonde, since I was 13. It was what I was doing prior to getting my first highlights. I went to the drug store as I've always done, chose a box I knew worked for me in the past, and went home to "do my hair." After expertly applying the bleach to my roots and allowing the time required to develop I washed my hair. I looked at my roots while still wet and it looked pretty brassy. Ok, I have natural red tones in my hair so maybe this won't look so bad after I dry it. Uh uh. My roots are now a light shade of orange. Yes. I said orange. 

So now what do I do? I suffer a week and decide last night I need to do this again and I go back to the drug store to buy a different box I knew worked for me in the past and proceeded home to "do my hair." Can we guess what happened? My gorgeous highlights are still there but the roots are now an even lighter shade of orange. Yes. I said orange again. WTF!?!?!? I went to work today and my work husband came over to my desk to say good morning. He twisted up his face a little and asked, "What the hell did you do to your hair?" OH MY WORD it must be bad if he said something. He is one of five children in his family and the only boy. He grew up around botched hair jobs. He knew exactly what was going on. He knew I did not want to spend the money on a professional service and fucked it up. The horror. Once he called me calico I realize I needed to fix this shit and fast. 

I left early today and stopped yet again at the drug store this time to buy a shade of brown. I got this new brand of oil based color because I didn't want to fry my hair off. Chestnut Brown. I always knew that if you are planning to cover blonde you had to have a red base and that is why I chose the chestnut. I mix, apply, and rinse. While I was showering I tried to look at my hair wet. It didn't look any darker especially on the highlights. I was thinking that maybe the un-highlighted areas are now chestnut brown and the rest looks highlighted. I couldn't be more wrong.

At this point I am afraid to look. I squeeze the water from my hair and wrap it in my towel as is customary. I dress and clean the running mascara from my face and slather on some anti-aging goop. I need to reveal the final result. Off with the towel. I look in the mirror and gasp. Not only are my highlights still there but now my base color is carrot top red. What the hell happened? Why can't I get this red/orange to leave me? It certainly isn't a good look for me and am contemplating another run to the drugstore for the darkest brown to just cover it all up but know it will not fix anything. Especially my obvious genius. 

I need a ball cap.