I went to get my haircut today. I'd given up caring much about my hair back in July when I decided Korea would be a good place to try out a lighter shade of blonde. The hairdresser I saw lived in Australia for a number of years and spoke English, so we had no trouble discussing the shade I wanted and selecting sample magazine photos that evening I went in for the coloring. After a good 40 minutes beneath a pile of slimy hair heavy with gobs of chemical goo, my mind full of images of me with bright blonde hair just in time for summer vacation, I was rinsed, washed, and dried. Alas, no beach blonde. Instead, I was face to face with a sick pineapple head. The ungodly shade of yellow-orange next to my pale face made me look like a creature from the depths of the sea. The kind with transparent skin that emit their own light. My hair was like a torch crowning my watery face. My mind raced with thoughts of how many different hats I could acquire by daylight, though my body remained calm.
How is the color? she asked. I casually admitted to it being a bit too orange for my skin tone, and she promised she could darken it up by adding more toner. After another dousing of chemicals, a wash, and dry, I was in the ballpark of my original color- dark blonde. For 50,000 won ($45) I should have been pissed that I essentially just gave my hair a chemical bath for nothing, but I was so relieved to again be part of the human race that I happily paid up and shot out of there. I'd been to hell and back, and I vowed not to dye my hair ever again in country where the color doesn't even naturally (or unnaturally for that matter) occur.
As it turned out the toner ended up to be more of a band-aid fix that dissolved throughout the summer. Though it never faded enough to be as bad as the first time, there was something noticeably off about the color of my hair until a few days ago when I received the box of self hair dye in the mail from my boyfriend. I've never been more pleased to be a ruddy dark blonde.
With my color looking fresh (and natural) I thought it was time to invest a bit in the style I'd been neglecting. So today I went along with my friends to a new salon they'd recently had good experiences with. I got a hand massage, tea, a slice of cake, a special treatment to help repair the damage from the dyeing, and an impromptu manicure all on top of a decent haircut and all for around $10.
Today I started caring about my hair again... and apparently about this blog.
