ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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Dye Woes

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I have dyed my hair this morning with a new dye kit from eSalon. I switched from Madison Reed because apparently it makes your hair fall out and there is a lawsuit.

The hair did not take the dye. It’s so bad that Gordon asked me what happened.

I might have to wait a couple of weeks and then go to an actual salon to have it fixed. Woe is me. I sit here with a mess on my head.

Update: Gordon says it looks better now that it is fully dry.

In light of this tragic tragedy, here is a dye-related snippet.

“Raise your arms, my lady,” Clover said.  It sounded like an order, and “my lady” was clearly tacked on.

I obeyed.

The gown I wore flowed over me in delicate folds.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, with a luxuriously full skirt, long sleeves, and delicate embroidery. It floated as I walked, fit me well, and was perfect in every way except one: it was a ghastly greenish yellow.  It was probably some sort of fancy shade of chartreuse, but the color was less French liquor and more diarrhea slime.

A shop assistant held up a large mirror so I could see myself.  Yep, I was the prettiest digestive upset princess ever.

Clover pursed her lips. “Ekgelin family?”

The shop owner, a woman in her early forties in an impeccably fitted blue gown, nodded. “A wedding fell apart. I was told to burn it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

Clover pondered the dress. If she concentrated any harder, my gown would catch on fire.

Making the kind of dress I needed for the joedurar in 10 days was impossible. Our only option was to purchase one and alter it.  We had spent the whole day taking the carriage from one dress making shop to the next.  The unfortunate gown wasn’t just our best option.  It was our only option. Attending the dance in one of my regular gowns was out of the question. I might as well show up in a bean sack.

“Do you think it will take the dye?” Clover asked.

The owner frowned.  “It should. Although I cannot guarantee it.  We had to soak it for three days in a vat of goseweed to get this shade. The dye is very saturated.”

“I was thinking cantolin powder,” Clover said.

“Hot or cold?”

“Hot, then cold set with vinegar and a dash of burgundy dust.”

“To counteract the undertone?”

“Yes.”

The two women peered at me.

“The embroidery is gold thread,” the shop owner said.  “It should hold.”

I cleared my throat. “Tresses?”

They looked at me.

“Can I put my arms down?”

Clover turned red.  “Of course, my lady.”

Oh good. Actually, I could’ve held out longer. My arms weren’t that tired. All of that daily stabbing must be paying off.

“I will let it go for half a grent,” the shop owner said.

Clover gasped.  “25 nomas? For a dress that should be burned?”

“This is Olvian silk!”

“In a hideous color!  For all we know, the dye will eat holes in it. And since they told you to burn it, you were already paid for it.”

“23. The embroidery alone took a month.”

“15. The embroidery is gold which doesn’t even fit our family colors.”

“20.”

“17.”

“Meet me at 19 or leave,” the shop owner ground out.

Clover raised her chin.  “19 it is.”

“We’ll take it,” I told the dress shop owner. “Thank you for your help.  It will not be forgotten.”

The owner smiled at me. “Yes, my lady.”

Ten minutes later, we exited the shop with the dress securely wrapped in a fat roll of canvas. Clover had counted out the coins and took it with a sour face.

Outside Will and Lute flanked us. In Reynald’s absence, Gort had insisted that both of his sons guarded me at all times outside the walls.

We walked for about half a block when Clover broke into a brilliant smile.  “It’s a 2 grent dress and we got it for 19 nomas.  Let’s go fast before someone arrests me for this robbery.”

She hugged the bundle to her.

I didn’t have the heart to ask her what would happen if the dress failed to take the dye.

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Comments

    • Nooooooo! I need to know NOW…

      Ahem. Please pardon me. My inner Violet Beauregard snapped her leash at that icky “w” word.

      • Though when I finally have this book in my hot little kindle, the first thing I’m going to do is search for “dye”.

  4. I can relate to your situation, eSalon hair dye is one of worst onesI have ever tried. Mine was so liquidy it was almost like water and the ammonia smell was overwhelming. Never again.

    Try Igora or Keune brands. They are awesome and do not damage the hair.

  5. I can’t wait to curl up with this book and read into the night with my cat purring at my side. Going to the future in my mind …

    Sorry about your hair! I stopped dying mine and am now all grey. It makes my dad angry so now I’ll stay grey until I die. Lol

    • I waited until my hair finished turning grey, then dyed it purple for my 50th birthday! (I used overtone….). Loved it! (Also scared my hubby!!)

      • I have been coloring (or, rather, paying to have colored) my hair various shades ever since I turned 60. I’d been doing blonde highlights since my 20’s and wanted something different. I’ve been going to my salon, which is a small one, for 20 years. We all gather around the box full of colors and discuss what color I want to be this time. Right now I’m magenta. I got some startled looks at first, but by now my family and co-workers accept it.

      • I’ll second the Overtone recommendation. I’ve been using it for a few years now instead of my regular conditioner and haven’t had any troubles. Best part is if I decided to change the color or go darker or go lighter, it’s super easy and you don’t have to wait.

        • Is Overtone a temporary dye? My hair is a nice silvery gray. I’d like to play with color, but I want to be able to go back quickly if I don’t like it.

    • My mother started commenting on my grays when I was in my late 30’s. I told her I’d earned every one from my darling daughter, who was a toddler at the time, and my DH. So when my mother or sisters comment, I just smile. I am just not vain enough to care. I don’t like the fact that the grays are concentrated around my ears or my “side burns” as my daughter calls them, but I just use that root touch-up and color that area to blend in. Otherwise, my dark brown hair is liberally mixed with gray, and I’m okay with that.

      • ditto. For me it’s not lack of vanity, it’s lack of energy. I’m just too exhausted to care about the gray hair.

        also, the last time I tried to color my hair years ago (grocery store brand), it trigger my psoriasis.

        haven’t found anything that will work with that.

      • Very few people comment on my grey hair. I’m going grey like my mother did – late and slow.

        Those who do comment get told that I’ve earned every single one and I’m keeping them.

    • So this is anecdotal experience, but I did have some hair fall out. I mean more than normal, not just some hair in the shower type of thing. I attributed it to age and got an anti-thinning shampoo, but now I am wondering if that’s why.

      • Oh, I’m gonna have to look into this more. I don’t dye my hair as much but I had been using Madison reed because I didn’t like spending salon money, but hated what the box dye at the grocery store did my hair. But ever since I started following a lot of hair experts and cosmetic chemists on Instagram, I’ve become skeptical of a lot of these class action suits. People file these all the time and doesn’t necessarily mean it’s scientifically sound. So it doesn’t actually mean that there’s something to it. I know in the past when people were freaking out about an ingredient in a lot of shampoos, there was nothing actually wrong with it and if someone was having hair issues, they were actually just allergic themselves to that or another ingredient, but it wasn’t something that caused issues for everyone.

      • I use LMK salon in Kyle, I have been pretty pleased with my results.

        Thank you for the fun snippet!

      • Big lawsuit happened over the curly hair products I used. When it was independently tested, turns out it had very strong, never use this on curly hair, chemicals. But lots of these are bogus lawsuits. After all this is the most litigious country in the world.
        Get yourself some extra strength biotin and keratin supplements to help your hair recover. They have worked wonders for me and a lot of friends. Just don’t buy the standard dose ones. Also rosemary oil on the scalp works as well as the fancy chemicals that sell for $$$. I was going bald up front and while the supplements made things better the rosemary oil truly worked wonders. I have so many baby hairs growing in I practically have bangs

        • My hair started thinning last year so I stopped using any dye to cover the gray. I began using ayurvedic hair treatments which improved my hair condition and henna, which helps with the gray (not as predictably as dye but I’m OK with that since it also conditions). Recently started using homemade rosemary oil since I heard it works as well as the OTC treatments commonly recommended by doctors. I’m waiting to see if it helps.

    • I use it too. I started with eSalon, but my hair doesn’t like it. It doesn’t take. The gray coverage just doesn’t work for me. I started going gray at 18. That is kind of a bummer about Madison Reed.

      • I loved the color from eSalon for 2 days. Then it was gone after the next wash. So every 5 weeks I’d have less than a week of pretty hair. Salon color really did not hold well either though and I was paying big money. The constantly changing hair color was not fun after awhile.

  8. A friend had a “sick pallor” tan silk dress from a wedding she was in. The style was great, and it was real silk. But she looked like the centerpiece at a funeral in it. But silk. I can dye silk. Now it is a beautiful kettlewashed lavender/purple and she looks fabulous in it. Who makes their bridesmaids wear “deathly pallor” as a color choice?
    Never mind, I know, it’s some relative of the person who made me wear “picky nylon lace over gastly pink jr. prom dress” as their bridesmaid.

    • Cause the bride doesn’t want to be shown up by a gaggle of beautiful bridesmaids of course. lol. My matron of honor was a natural light auburn with face framing strawberry blonde highlights. We went to the salon at the same time so I knew it wasn’t dyed or highlighted. She was just blessed. Her dark green dress with that hair and green eyes makes the first thing you see in my wedding photos. Not me, the bride. But I knew that would happen and didn’t care. But I’ve had friends who either left out their striking friends from bridesmaids or deliberately chose a color no one looks good in.

    • my bridesmaids were a dark haired glow-white lady, a blonde almost as white lady with pinker undertones, and three Asian ladies with different undertones to their skin. all had different builds. I asked for David’s bridal lavender thinking that while I couldn’t ever hope to flatter them all I could at least not wash any of them out. the dress style and hair styles were their choice. I thought it worked out great from a nobody being miserable standpoint. and having my friends reflect themselves matched my personality a lot better than uniform dresses would have and hopefully gave them some bit of a comfort in a color that wasn’t the best or worst on any of them. It wasn’t about me at all.

  10. Aaannnnnd, now I’m on pins and needles to find out how the dress took the dye. 🥻🤞😬

    I’m so excited for this book!

    Sorry to hear about your dye experience. 🤗 Is there anyway to strip the color out?
    I’ve been contemplating dyeing my hair (I’ve never done it), but stories like that make me reconsider.

    • As a former stylist, pick carefully if you decide to have the color removed. If they bring up using bleach, run for the door! A product called Elimi8 is a professional product that removes color from hair. It doesn’t remove your natural color. If you go this route, you will need to color your hair, usually 2 levels lighter than you normally use.

    • Reply to Mindy’s, Jenny’s and Tracy’s comments. Sorry, but I fell out of my chair laughing. It brought back Vietnam Firebase memories of stirring outhouse pots with diesel fuel.

  14. I think we all need the answer to this dress/dye question, but look forward to reading and finding out!

  15. omg I loved Maggie already but now I want to know more about this Clover character! How (and why?!!) does she know so much about both dressmaking and politics?

  16. Sorry about your hair color experience. There must be something that will work out there.

    Thanks for the snippet. It was great! I sure hope the dress takes the dye. 🙂

  17. yay dress shopping! always good.

    sorry about the hair dye. makes me think of Anne (of Green Gables)

      • But I cried So Hard with her when Marilla had to cut it off! (I think I was 5.)

        Did you know that most of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s works are now in the public domain?

  18. Perfect snippet. I spent yesterday with a friend that is getting an independent yarn dying company up and running (I’ll send more info when she is ready), and there was a skein that had darker spots and she wasn’t sure why (possibly too much heat in some parts of the pot). We spent a bit of time discussing possible fixes for the skein (but none are repeatable) and the pot. A fabulous way to spend some time on a Sunday.

  19. I leave hair dye to the pros. I once home dyed my hair “light brown” and came out with almost black hair. Another time I went to a trendy hair salon while on a business trip. They only used vegetable dye there. The stylist managed to turn my hair green. There was a huge convocation of all the stylist in the salon and they did procedure after procedure to get my hair an acceptable color. I learned my lesson and now I don’t let anyone other than my stylist touch my hair.

    • one of my former coworkers did a home dye job in Mulberry. The picture on the box was brown with hints of copper. The actual shade on her was purple pink. I had bosses demanding to know what color we thought her hair was. We just labeled it as red.

  20. I’m loving Maggie more and more with each snippet (and I loved it after the first one!).
    I got to a local hairdresser to dye my hair since I cannot be trusted to do it myself. She puts the dye in and then I go home and rinse it off. No extras, no nonsense so a lot cheaper than most salons but she uses a professional dye that works well.
    Over lockdown I tried to do it myself once and dyed my tile grout, the sink, my skin, but my hair still had lots of greys 🙄

  24. My condolences on your hair. There are times I am very happy I only ever dyed my hair once.

    I love the snippet. I’m looking forward to the book.

  25. I have a few of those dying failures in my closet. Although since they are still in my closet I would classify them as not completely successful.

  26. Hmmm that reminds me, I’ve a dying project waiting, but as one of the things it’s waiting for is the new sink to be plumbed I guess it will have to go on waiting (my beloved is doing the plumbing, he is capable, but a perfectionist so his speed is sloth-like).

    I hope a wash settles your hair down ok!

  27. Hair – we all get very upset when a cut, dye, etc doesn’t go well 🙁 Because our hair (or lack of) is an essential part of our identity. That’s very upsetting. I recommend strong drink and chocolate!

    Thanks for the snippet. Now we’ll fret over how this dress takes the dye. And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

  29. I recently got so completely over dying my hair that I – very bravely, it felt like – decided to embrace my grey and had some salon procedures to integrate the regrowth into the colour. I’m surprised at how badass it makes me feel! And despite having been following my natural colour closely with the dye, the grey makes me look significantly more glowy and alert in my frequent AVL meetings. So it’s clearly the right decision.

    Interested to hear what colour the gown ends up. The colour sounds vile. Could it be worse than Pantone 448 C? (Which actually looks amazing on me, so make what you will of that, lol.)

  30. As a hairdresser that moved over to nursing in the early 80’s, I feel your pain. I used L’Oreal blonde color for over 20 years then on a wild hair decided to stop coloring. After 18 months with drab gray hair, I miss the blonde. Go grab a nice box of brown color a shade lighter than your ends and just do the roots. It will be okay.

  31. So the pandemic stayed and stayed, I thought let’s see what color hair I really have. Ta Da, Snow White, like glow in the dark white. Shocking at first! No wonder the color did not stick. A woman’s glory can be a bane.

  32. Oh my goodness about your hair. My hair started turning silver a few years ago. Silver like in sterling silver jewelry silver. A lot of people who saw it thought I frosted my hair. Nope. Genetics are a wonder. Apparently my maternal grandmother’s hair turned the exact shade of silver as my hair in her early 50s.

    What a hideous color of a silk dress! I hope the fiber isn’t so toasted from the original dye that the dress can be re-dyed a nicer color. Devious shenanigans of buying the dress less than what it’s actually worth. Something I would do. He he he. 😎

  33. Hopefully they don’t get the water too hot while they’re trying to set the dye and rinse many times to remove the vinegar smell. Fingers crossed for purple dye. 😍
    I haven’t dyed my hair in years and am happy with all my “glitter,” but every time I watch a Brad Mondo video (popcorn at the ready) where people have used his dyes I start to have some wild thoughts. I wish you luck!

  34. I have a number of friends who gave up on hair dyes during the pandemic. They look awesome. Mine has only ever been dyed for Halloween, but I did get my maternal grandfather’s very late-greying hair. As in, he wasn’t near fully grey yet when he died at 70. At 64, my temples are greying, while the rest of it doesn’t even qualify as salt and pepper yet – you have to be up close to spot the individual hairs. So on the one hand I’m trying to give aid and comfort to anyone who doesn’t want to dye. On the other hand, it’s never been a real issue for me, so it’s not completely virtuous. I’ve earned every one of those hairs and then some.

  35. I love it! “Let’s go fast before someone arrests me for robbery.” Love it. Makes my day. Thank you.

  37. What is the ye olden times version of washing it with a red sock? Maybe use that as final resort. I firmly believe even looking too long at my favorite pair of red socks turns the looker a shade pinker. The original color of said looker bearing no consideration to the sock.

  38. My hair started to turn white at 12 or 13. My dad’s was the same only her was blonde so it didn’t really show that much for years. I started colouring it in my 20’s but it didn’t seem to matter what I used, it became auburn. I finally gave up mid 40’s and let it go white. I like it but growing it out was not attractive – kind of like an auburn skunk

  39. Oh noooo!
    I have likewise had some color misfires, but paying salon prices every 5 weeks is not in the budget. I wonder if part of your color problem is that kits are enough to color short hair, but not enough for long hair. You probably need 2 kits.
    Good luck!

  40. My hair started going grey in my early thirties; started dyeing it, it started falling out. I decided to go “grey” did that for 10 years . Didn’t want to be grey headed in my daughters wedding pics. Found Surface “Pure” hair dye, can only get your hair done in salons. My scalp liked the dye, and with no irritation🤷🏽‍♀️ if you google surface hair dye and know your color you can get it online(somewhat).

  41. My hair starting slowly greying in my 30s and I was too cheap and too lazy to bother with coloring it. Now at 72 it is a streaky, and I am told, very striking mix of dark brown, light brown and silver. My hairdresser told me a younger client asked if she could make “my hair look like hers” and she laughed and said no, you just have wait 40 years or so!
    Don’t despair. Like Claire in Silver Shark, you can always, just this once, go to a salon and say “Fix this please”

  42. My mother had Green hair for a month in the sixties, hopefully your hair is not that bad. And time to embrace scarfs and hats.

  43. What book/series is this snippet from?
    So sorry about your hair. Have some fun and get Overtone. It’s temporary, comes in lots of fun colors and conditions the hair at same time. I have very dark, nearly black, hair with about 30% white and have a lot of fun with Overtone. Used to get it professionally dyed, then tried Madison Reed which I hated. Then used colored conditioner as long as my hair was short. Now that it’s long again and I’m in the “red hat” phase I’m using funky colors and having fun with it.

    • This is a snippet of Maggie, the new project House Andrews are working on 🙂. It is not linked to any of the existing series or universes.

  44. I haven’t dyed my hair in about fifteen plus years I think it is, but I used to change colours at least two, three times a year, maybe more – drastic and bold changes I’m talking. I did it myself from box dyes and was firmly in the camp (and sort of still am which is why I no longer bother) of if you can’t tell it’s dyed then what’s the point.
    I only ever went to the hairdresser’s to dye it once. I wanted a pure white blonde (back before all this lovely grey trend was happening) and while I’d often bleached my hair before dyeing it a colour, the most I’d gotten was a light red. I thought surely a hairdressing salon I’m paying could do it.
    What a waste of time and money. Five hours and they did two! count them, two bleachings – stinging my scalp in the process, put on a wash, took my money and I still came away looking like a pale tomato. Apparently I have too much red in my hair? Not sure I believe it. I think I needed a better salon perhaps.
    And doesn’t look like I’ll be going a distinguished silver as I age either. My family seems to favour a very gradual decline into salt and pepper. I’ve yet to get a grey hair personally and it actually irks me. I feel like I’ve earned some but have nothing to show.
    My littlest brother (by 15 whole years) has some grey in his beard and is always taunting me with them.
    In other words none of us are happy with what we have even when others envy it from us (except for younger brothers winding up their sisters 😜).

  45. Remember everyone with white hair Looks great. Think of all you know with white or even a good silver gray and that look great.
    Entertainment industry says be thin and without white/gray hair. Even tho most of us are not 20 lbs underweight or have golden hair (Barbie)

  47. The post started with toxic hair dyes and then you got a green dress I thought there was going to be mention of arsenic green but I guess that dress isn’t going to poison anyone.

  48. Love the snippet and send sympathy over the hair dye issues. I remember that when I used to teach, I had a couple of students who used food coloring on their hair (it’s reasonably safe and isn’t permanent) so they could experiment with the colors. Heck, in the Halloween season, I think anything goes! Go wild if you want!

  49. My mom managed to dye her hair purple one time instead of her normal blonde. I told her she’d mentioned wanting to dye it so to just roll with it. hehe

  50. Thank you for the snippet!!! Totally made my night.

    I too have a fun hair color story. When I was in my 20s, I had done one of those 18 washes in black. Well, two years later it was still black! Way more than 18 washes. so my friend at the time decided to help me out and strip the color out. By the time she was done, I figured I could see every color Crayola ever thought of in my hair. I thought it was the funniest thing ever and was laughing so hard I was crying. Friend thought I was just crying and upset. I heard her on the phone to her stylist and she was freaking out. Had to reassure them both that yes, I would like this corrected, but I was finding it very funny. I think friend about had a heart attack. Stylist almost fainted when he saw it and in very flamboyant theatrics mourned my waist length hair as he was chopping it all off. This is also where we discovered that I’m too Irish for bleach blonde hair 😆

  51. Thank you for the snippet and sorry about your hair woes!

    I saw my mother’s hair when she stopped coloring it and it was a beautiful mix of very dark brown, white and silver so I’ve never colored mine – no regrets!

  52. More Maggie!! Yay!! 📚

    (Fitting formal gowns is such a pain….the only thing that trumps bridesmaid dress misery is bridal gown shopping….)

  56. artic fox is a semi-permanent surface dye if you need something while waiting for your hair to recover. it loves my daughter’s blonde hair for weeks and some of the really saturated colors even last a week on my determined dark brunette.

    • That stuff is great! Poseidon on the top, Wrath on the bottom. Makes you look like the flame of an acetylene torch.

  57. Poor you, I hope the dye job improves over the next few days.

    Thanks for the snippet, especially letting Clover enjoy her little moment of triumph, ha ha.

  58. I’m so excited for the new series with Maggie! It is my favorite genre with historical fantasy. If there is some romance too, even better 🙂 Loving Clover and our main heroine. All the characters so far seem like gems. Thank you for giving Maggie a chance!

  59. I would love to stop coloring my hair but with my complexion I look so washed out with gray hair. I go to a salon and leave it to a professional. She puts two colors on, one a base color and the other is highlights. It saves me the trouble and stress of doing it myself because I know I would run into issues if I did it myself. There has been times I could not get an appointment in time (my fault) to get a touch up so I will buy a touch up kit and use that.

  60. What a lovely snippet, thank you for sharing! I love that Clover was so happy after bargaining with the shop owner, reminds of the haggling in Silent Blade.😂

    As for hair dye problems, I’ve only ever gone to salons to have my hair colored because I’m 100% sure I’d mess it up if I did it myself 😅

  61. Ilona, The best permanent hair dye i’ve ever found is at the Dollar Tree, Not the professional hair products store. I mix half and half of 2 colors, sometimes, but usually just the auburn, mixed with red gold corrector from the fancy professional store. The other half of 2 colors keeps until it is mixed the next time.
    I always get complements from strangers wherever I am. That Never happened with the expensive brands. I have a Lot of gray and this one covers it when I leave it on for 45 minutes to an hour. I’ve used it for over 10 years: I color it every 3 weeks. Good luck

  63. I tried a store box dye twice, hated the grow out skunk look and decided to forget about it. I ended up a pretty silvery grey that I love so was rewarded in the end. I occasionally think about blue but would hate to mess up my silver.

  64. Hair – it can be a thing…. I can empathize! Good luck with what ever you decide is the solution for you!

    Loved the snippet!!! I would suck at bargaining, but love it when others do it well.

  65. Try Goldwell. You can buy it on Amazon now, as well as the mixer. During COVID, that’s how I kept my hair at 6RV. Although we did one experiment with 6VV which was very cool.

    I adore Goldwell. They surely have black, but I have to admit I love it because the reds are not to be found in nature.

  66. I’m sorry for your dye mishap. My mom accidentally turned her hair lavender once and it was before folks were doing that on purpose. We ran to the store and bought something guaranteed to remove the color (mom wore a scarf). But when we got home there were no directions in the box! I called the store and had them read me the directions over the phone. They were not amused but we were desperate and they would have been closed by the time we drove back to the store. The remover worked but mom’s hair looked fried.

  67. Love the snippet! More please!
    I was an eSalon customer for quite some time and liked the product. Then last year the kit I received seemed to be a completely different formual, much darker than what I had been using and hideously gross texture-wise (gloppy and just felt weird on my hair). I asked customer service about it as well as asked for a refund, they refused, and I stopped using their product. Now I shell out moolah to a salon if I want to have fun with color, but I may just go au natural.

  68. What a fun snippet! I can hardly w**t for the book (but I guess I will have to!)I am very intrigued by the snippets so far.

    And much sympathy for the hair dye issues. I am slowly turning gray. My very light brown hair used to have a ton of natural red highlights which I loved. The red is almost entirely gone now, replaced by very, very dark and soulless brown and some gray, but uneven, so it looks like a bad dark brown dye job!

    Also, I have always had a pure white stripe on one side in the front (my brother and nephew also have that so genetics?) I really hate the brown but love that white stripe, so I talk myself out of dye every time I think about doing it. Maybe one of these times I will give in and get red highlights! 😁

  70. Like a lot of people (mostly women) I started dying my own hair in 2020 during COVID. I have always used Redkin Shades because 1) I’m only 25% gray, but I can’t go all gray because I’m glow-in-the-dark white, and letting the gray happen means I look sick. 2) Redkin Shades conditions my hair as I dye it. 3) It is a softer dye, so my gray turns a golden brown while my existing brown hair gets a deeper brown. Highlights! As part of the dye job! 4) There is no stark dye line as my hair grows out, it is a more graduated line. 5) Even though it is a “professional use only” dye, you can get anything over the internet.

    You can even mix up your dye to get closer to what you want. I’m currently using 1/2 Chestnut and 1/2 Irish Creme. Chemistry R Us. As long as I’m not damaging my hair, I love playing with it.

  71. Yikes. Sorry to hear abt the hair. When I get a patchy job, I usually let it sit for a few days then throw another home kit over it.
    Not sure if you can find it where you are, try japanese or korean bubble dye if you can. Mise en scene (kr) Liese (jp) these get it pretty even and its a no brainer. Or EZN pudding dye, thats korean and easy to spread texture. In general, the hair dyes by parent company Amore Pacific (of which Mise en scene is under) works very well for home dyes because of the texture, be it gel or bubble or cream. When I used to use loreal, hairdressers would tut at me for the uneven job. Not anymore, they thought they did the colouring couple of months ago 😛

  75. for hair dying, have you ever gone down the henna pathway? you wouldn’t be able to use traditional dye after and it does fade, but providing you use a conditioning element in the mix it is great for hair.

  77. I really loved your snippet about the dress bargain. I do have one unsolicited suggestion.

    Have you considered transitioning to grey? I bit the bullet and haven’t regretted it. First I had the hairdresser strip the dye and go to a lighter color–dark blonde (brownish tone). It makes it less shocking. As my grey hair grew in I went lighter and when my hair was about half grey/half blonde I got a shorter hair cut fully grey.

    I get compliments all the time on my color–now natural. I can’t believe the time and trouble I’ve saved.

    Just a suggestion. Anyone else made the break from dye to natural?

  80. “Diarrhea slime.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    I needed that laugh. Thank you very much!

  82. Facing hair loss ahead of chemo some years back, my three granddaughters had great fun dying the ends of my blonde hair pink ; I got many compliments before it all fell out. Now that the new hair is white/grey, I decided not to colour it any more, but I’ve had to change the colour of my clothes to suit the new me.

  83. Oh man I feel for you! I did a scissor thing while in a pony tail…do NOT try it as now my hair is lopsided and I have to go to a real hair stylist. She said she can hide my gray with something called a “lived in rooted blonde” thing I had to google it’s been so long that I’ve done any professional hair stuff-so fingers crossed… sending you positive hair energy 🙂

  84. my mom and i call that color “baby poop”. on the long drive out through the countryside to visit my gramma, we always passed a big old-style farmhouse that was painted that unfortunate shade of baby poop. it stayed that way for two years before it got repainted white. huge improvement.

    hope the hair dye situation can be easily remedied.

  85. What a bummer. I feel your pain. I’ve used Ion hair dye which seems gentle. It also comes in semi, demi and permanent. I used the demi just on my roots.

  87. The dress and its color possibilities sound thrilling! I love the details of the discussion about how to handle the challenge.

    My grandmother was a home ec teacher and a textile person. Much was passed down to my Mom, who is also a textile person (and so am I – stashes are *collections*, yes). So of course after we both rejected anything dealing with dissection, formaldehyde, fruit flies, etc., my Mom coached me through a kick ass science fair project in junior high using flowers and plants from our kind of wild back yard and different basic mordants (cream of tartar was one). Super fun and interesting! Unexpected colors (for example, if memory serves, very purple lupin with one mordant made some lovely soft grey greens, and with another a soft rose/purple).

    Bummer about the hair! After some youthful experiments with Sun In, I couldn’t deal with the upkeep of even that and made peace with my middle of the road light brown. Years later during a port visit to Vladivostok (I was in military uniform with hair yanked back in a utilitarian twist), a nice Russian lady at a social event told me very kindly that she owned a salon and would be happy to “fix my hair for me.” All the women in town there were wearing more glamorous, distinguished shades. Might’ve been fun to see what she would do! But alas, the upkeep.

    Good luck with the next phase of the endeavor!

    Thanks so much for the snippet. It sparked good memories.

  88. I am sorry for your hair woes. But thanks for the snippet.

    If you’ve already damaged the hair follicle with traditional dye, you can get pigmented conditioner (with no damaging chemicals that process further) in a color safe to leave in for a bit before rinsing and work it in. It can tone down undesired results, and help nourish the hair if it might get redyed sooner than usual.

  89. L’Oréal Preference. I’ve used since I was in my 20s because I grayed early. I am 51. I go to the salon every 6 To 8 weeks and get highlights and color. Then I use the Preference every 2 weeks in between. Use a hair dryer to boost the color on resistant gray.
    PS I tried Madison reed and it did not work as well.

  90. I wasn’t sure if I was emotionally ready to plunge into yet another new world, but this snippet got my attention.

  91. gimmee moreeeee
    So, um, when is this coming out? *sheepishly looking sideways*
    Ahem!! I mean, I need it to survive!!

  92. Yay snippet!! Love!

    I spend so much time and money to have my grays dyed in a salon. It’s worth it to me, even though it’s a pain.

  93. I adore how you all write clothing scenes like this, reminds me of Andrea’s dragon dress and Kate’s gift gown she saw in the window.

    Attending weddings and professional formal events it’s such a fantasy to find a dress that fits the way I want and helps to convey the energy I’m going for.

  95. I also use Madison Reed. After reading your blog, I panicked. So I started Googling and researching safe hair colors. This is my finding. Unless you use henna, all hair colors use chemicals and almost all contain some degree of harmful chemicals. I went to eSalon’s website. It says that some colors might have Phenylenediamine and resorcinol (carcinogens). I guess I’ll go back to Madison Reed because the alternative are not much better.

  97. I SO want to know if the dress took the dye or if the dye killed the dress. I believe this will be a fun LOL one.

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