Hair disaster!

[NuclearApple]

Hello there, I'm going to talk about what happened today to my hair :(
This is what my hair looked like before this summer (sorry about huge pics)
http://i1364.photobucket.com/albums/r722/NuclearApple/PicMonkeyCollagejpg_zpsfce5ced2.jpg
It was thick, healthy and looked good; but after some time I decided to change look: layers+blonde ombre...
I went to the hairdresser and she didn't do a very good job...she cut chunks of hair that contrasted with thin ones, and there were a huge layer of shorter hair on top and a super thin longer one at the bottom...colour looked fine though, but she ruined my hair with those "layers" (split ends, breakage ecc).
Recently I had decided to grow out the ombre and microtrim it out, and in the meantime cover the dark blonde ombre with a brighter, platinum like colour.And I also decided to do it myself! What a great move...
So today I dyed my hair for the second time to get a lighter blonde (the first time went fine), and once I rinsed out the dye...
It had the same consistency of hay. Half of the length was thin, tangly, strawlike, so I had to do the best thing and chop what was possible, from almost hip length I am at bsl and still have to cut more damage out! :(
I am so upset and angry at myself, I wish I hadn't done nothing, but what is done is done.
The positive thing about this is that layers are gone and also now I can grow healthier hair.
I wrote this just to get this off my chest and talk to someone, feel free to comment however you want. :)

Ps: I don't have pictures at the moment so if you are interested I'm going to post tomorrow!

[MINAKO]

oh nooo, i feel very sorry for you. i guess thats the price many of us pay in need for a change, i had my lessons too and gave up on that, no color for me ever again and self trim at home. You will get to your goal, it just takes a bit longer. hugs

[Johannah]

Big hugs for you :grouphug:

[embee]

Oh my, that's sad.

[MadPirateBippy]

Before you do another big chop, you might want to try doing a deep coconut oil treatment- get a ton of it in your hair, braid it, and leave it all day or overnight. I have a bleached section of my hair and that brings it back from hay quality to decent. Bleach lifts the cuticle, so a protein treatment and acid rinse can lower the cuticle again, making the hair smoother. You still might have to trim, but that might be able to minimize the damage enough you can cut less.

Been where you are, it sucks, the coconut oil and acid worked great for me so I hope they'll work for you!

[NuclearApple]

Thank you so much everyone for your support! <3 that's very appreciated!
MadPiratebippy, thank you for your suggestion but there is really nothing that I can save there unfortunately :( the strands have really thinned out, the hair goes from normal thickness to these very thin ends... It can't be saved at all, anyway thanks again =)

[lapushka]

Looks like you can use a hug. :grouphug: And relax, it will grow back healthy if you let it. I'd stop messing with it from now on and concentrate on babying it the best you can.

[ARG]

:grouphug: The good news is that, it is only hair after all, and it will grow. After my DD was born I went into full on ignore mommy mode and badly neglected my hair, when I got back on the "take care of myself" road, I was able to look at it positively as a fresh start and a new relearning experience.

I'm sorry you're losing length, but look at it as a new journey! And you always have us here for support.

[swearnsue]

I know that feeling of wanting to go a bit more blonde, then a bit more until....the dry straw day.

I haven't found a way to lighten a full head of hair without damage, although I think it's possible to have some slight highlights around your face when done carefully with coconut oil.

I hope your hair grows fast and strong!

[LongCurlyTress]

Many of us have done exactly what you did and we also learned our lesson the hard way so don't be too mad at yourself! We just learn from our mistakes! That is the important thing. :)

Way back about 4 years ago, I had a horrible hair dying experience.. The stylist put level 3 on my hair and I am naturally a level 6. My hair came out almost black since it was so porous! My hair was waist length also so I was devastated. All I really wanted to do was cover up my silvers which were beginning to invade my dark hair. Well, I used Feria 5G on my hair to try to lighten it up and it made it brassy and super dried out. So, after that grew out to chin length, I cut the brassy dyed off length to a chin length bob and heartbroken, I have been growing it ever since. At least you didn't chop off as much as I did! Wish I had just kept growing it out and trimming an inch every two months.

Well, I am happy to say my big chop to chin length was back in March, 2011 and now I am back to 31 inches long, November, 2014- at hip when stretched out. Growing out curly hair is like torture! Anyways, I just wanted to tell you my story so you won't feel so badly and don't be so hard on yourself. Good luck and take good care of your hair with alot of coconut oil on it everynight, no heat if possible, and no more hair dye! It will grow out healthier than ever! :blossom:

[lapushka]

Many of us have done exactly what you did and we also learned our lesson the hard way so don't be too mad at yourself! We just learn from our mistakes! That is the important thing. :)

Oh yeah, definitely. A few years ago, I had almost BSL hair and started messing about with henna and chemical dye, and bleach, until it was enough and I got a chemical cut & burn. I had to have it chopped to chin. I learned my lesson and since then no dye and certainly not bleach has touched my head.

[spidermom]

So sorry. Been there, only it was a perm in my case. Strange how sometimes we think we have this great idea to make us look better, and it goes very wrong.

[LauraLongLocks]

Sorry this happened to you. My mother has the same dark hair as me, only it is even more fine than mine. One year on New Year's Day, she decided she wanted to go blonde, to see if blondes really have more fun. So, she went to the salon and they started bleaching. It went to Ronald McDonald red/orange. More bleach, more bleach, more bleach... and finally they got it light enough to put a light blonde color back onto it. Only, she didn't have much hair left. What she did have left was disintegrating. So the stylist had to cut it to 1/2" on the top, and she spiked it with hair gel. It looked horrid. And the blonde color wasn't even very good. It looked fake and brassy... way too yellow. That was a long time ago. Mom's hair grew back out and looks quite nice now.

Six and a half years ago I chopped my MBL hair to a 1" pixie because I got head lice. I didn't have anyone else to help me pick the lice out, and I could not imagine a way to do it myself (though now if I got lice I would figure out a way). I would be at knee, or very close to it, by now if not for that big chop. It was a rash decision made out of desperation. So, yeah, things happen. Hair will grow back. Sorry your hair didn't hold up to the coloring. I hope it grows back quickly for you.

[MadPirateBippy]

Six and a half years ago I chopped my MBL hair to a 1" pixie because I got head lice. I didn't have anyone else to help me pick the lice out, and I could not imagine a way to do it myself (though now if I got lice I would figure out a way). I would be at knee, or very close to it, by now if not for that big chop. It was a rash decision made out of desperation. So, yeah, things happen. Hair will grow back. Sorry your hair didn't hold up to the coloring. I hope it grows back quickly for you.

OMG, I've had to deal with the lice thing several times-there's a hideous all chemical resistant strain that the kids in my part of Texas have been getting. If it happen again, here's what i have done to get rid of it for myself and my kid.

Rinse hair with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol. If it's not 90% or higher it won't work. That will kill the actual lice.
Get a spray bottle, fill it with salt water- as salty as you can make it. Some salt should be settling out of the bottom. Spray the HECK out of your hair with that. Lice + eggs are sensitive to dehydration. That will dry them out enough that the eggs become unviable.
Get a shower cap. Do a vinegar soak. That'll un-glue the eggs from your hair.

Do this every other day for a week.

I seriously spent somewhere between three and five hundred dollars trying to get rid of the lice and that's the only thing that worked. There was this horrible confluence of policy change- this poor kid in my daughter's class, her mom decided that lice were a punishment from God. Child protective services was no longer allowed to interfere with kids for hygiene issues, and the school board that year declared you couldn't send a kid home who had lice- so this poor girl just suffered, no one wanted to be her friend, and everyone else in the class caught it over and over again. I was able to get her desk (she was sitting next to the kid) changed, but it was a nightmare for all involved.

I should really make an article out of this but let me tell you, I get cutting your hair over it.

[LauraLongLocks]

I have since learned about the Head Lice to Dead Lice treatment plan. No toxic chemicals, hundreds of dollars saved, and actually hair looks much nicer after the treatments of olive oil. I just had no one to help me pick and had no idea that I could section it and pick my own hair out. It just seemed overwhelming to me and so I chopped it. I missed my hair instantly. Felt naked. When my husband came home from work that day I hid from him because I didn't want him to see me like that. (It was actually somewhat his fault that I cut it, because he told me he had no time to help me pick lice out of my hair until the next day after work.)

Edit: That's a horribly lazy thing for those parents to just give up and say it was a punishment from God. Their poor daughter must have suffered miserably, both socially and physically from all the itching. And the whole class getting lice over and over again is completely unfair to everyone involved. I wonder what became of the girl with the horrible lice. I feel sorry for her that no one would help her (but even if people did help her get rid of her own lice, I'm sure everyone in her family also had lice and so she would just get them again).

[Islandgrrl]

Oh MPB, that's a horrible story! I can't imagine going through that with any kind of grace at all. And that poor child.


OMG, I've had to deal with the lice thing several times-there's a hideous all chemical resistant strain that the kids in my part of Texas have been getting. If it happen again, here's what i have done to get rid of it for myself and my kid.

Rinse hair with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol. If it's not 90% or higher it won't work. That will kill the actual lice.
Get a spray bottle, fill it with salt water- as salty as you can make it. Some salt should be settling out of the bottom. Spray the HECK out of your hair with that. Lice + eggs are sensitive to dehydration. That will dry them out enough that the eggs become unviable.
Get a shower cap. Do a vinegar soak. That'll un-glue the eggs from your hair.

Do this every other day for a week.

I seriously spent somewhere between three and five hundred dollars trying to get rid of the lice and that's the only thing that worked. There was this horrible confluence of policy change- this poor kid in my daughter's class, her mom decided that lice were a punishment from God. Child protective services was no longer allowed to interfere with kids for hygiene issues, and the school board that year declared you couldn't send a kid home who had lice- so this poor girl just suffered, no one wanted to be her friend, and everyone else in the class caught it over and over again. I was able to get her desk (she was sitting next to the kid) changed, but it was a nightmare for all involved.

I should really make an article out of this but let me tell you, I get cutting your hair over it.

[hennalonghair]

I'm so sorry for your hair loss.
That's so sad.

[ZeppHead]

Live and learn. I've done it as have many others. Smile that you still have your hair on your head! I've colored and stripped my hair so much in the past I know exactly what the hay hair feels like except mine was orange at the time yuck! :/
Anyway baby it trim a little and see what you can do with it. Sleep in a good conditioner or coconut oil...you made a mistake don't beat yourself up. Give it some time and hopefully you will remember this when you are feeling spontaneous next time. ;)