christine røde

note to self: remember 2A.

Today I called around to a bunch of hair salons I found on Yelp. I asked them if they had any available appointments for color/highlights this week. The reaction I got was usually laughter, followed by a bitchy reply along the lines of “I’m afraid we’re booked until the beginning of October,” or “I think I can fit you in on September 23rd.”

Before I moved to San Francisco, I just used to walk into a hair salon the same day I got the sudden urge to do something drastic about my hair. I’d usually get an appointment later the same or next day.

I get those urges a lot, you see. To the point where waiting a month is definitely not an option, because I can’t stop looking in the mirror and miserably thinking, “THIS NEEDS TO BE BLONDE. NOW!” The people I talked to on the phone weren’t very sympathetic.

So instead I took matters into my own hands, trekked over to Walgreens, and bought some DIY hair dye/highlights. It was L’Oreal and it had some fancy French name.

The dye part went alright. I’ve done that part a million times before. When I was done, my hair looked pretty much the same shade as before. Maybe a little bit darker. Not really the results you expect from a box labelled light blonde, but my morale was still high and I continued onward to the highlighting part.

It seemed straightforward, so I barely even glanced at the instructions – mix 2A (activation cream) with 2B (bleaching powder). I emptied the big tube into the bowl, then mixed the powder in. Applied to hair. Waited 10 minutes. Then I went back to wash it out and use 2C (conditioner).

Mysteriously, the only bottle left on the counter was labelled 2A. It was full.

Oops.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how I spent $17 and 2 hours today.

Results: My scalp is about a thousand hairs poorer. Otherwise, no difference.