With isolation/quarantine lasting as long as it has, there are a lot of routine things that people are missing out on. Some of them are things that only happen once a year or so (like some doctor appointments or fancy spa days that people might plan), but there are a lot of things that people do regularly that they can’t do right now. And a lot of those things are beauty-related. I don’t do a ton of regular beauty appointments, but I do have a few. I do get waxed once a month (waxing is better for my skin than shaving for my autoimmune disease) and I do miss doing that. I was supposed to go in just as things closed, so it is a little annoying since shaving isn’t an option for me. But at the same time, I’m not seeing anyone so I don’t care too much.
The other regular beauty thing I do is my hair. Haircuts and color something that I have seen a lot of protestors complaining about. And I get it. If you need a haircut or your color looks bad, it’s frustrating that you can’t do much about it. But at the same time, there is no way to keep proper distance while doing someone’s hair. And nobody’s hair is worth risking getting sick or being a carrier and getting someone else sick. I know that not everyone agrees with me, but there are so many other things to worry about than hair.
I was lucky because my hair was done right before things closed. And even though my hair grows quickly, I didn’t care that it was getting longer. Most days, I just pin my hair back so it’s out of my face. Again, I’m not going out so it doesn’t matter how I look. When I need my hair to look good, I can blow dry my hair and style it. When I did my self-tape audition, my hair didn’t exactly look like it does in my headshot. But the casting directors know that nobody can get their hair done right now so hopefully, they aren’t judging us on that.
But the one hair frustration I was dealing with was my hair color. I’ve been going gray for almost 15 years now, but the grays have been significantly worse in the past few years. I do have different products I can use to cover my grays between appointments. And if I needed to look good (like for my audition), I just used those. I don’t like seeing so much gray in my hair, but if that was my biggest issue then I am lucky.
But my friend who did my hair the last time said that she was going to come by with some hair color for me as a gift. I knew a lot of people were buying box color, but I wasn’t going to do that. So to have a friend drop off professional color for me was so nice! She gave me enough to do my roots and cover the grays. It wasn’t for a full color, but it was something to hold me over.
When I was a teenager, I did dye my hair at home. Back then, I did use a cheap box color. It never looked horrible, but it never looked great. It was mainly to add some red to my hair and sometimes in the sun, it did look a little orange. But compared to some of the hair fails my friends in high school had, mine wasn’t bad. But that experience did scare me a bit about coloring my hair at home. Even if it was professional color.
Fortunately, my friend was able to help me via text with what I needed to do. I sent her photos to show her where I had the color for her to check that I was doing it right. There wasn’t a lot I could screw up (I just had to mix 2 products and then use the brush she gave me to put it on my hair), but I was still nervous. By the time I got the color all over where my grays were, I sent her another photo and she confirmed that it looked good.
I had a little bit of leftover color, so she told me for the last 10 minutes that I should mix that leftover with some conditioner and put it on the rest of my hair to refresh things. I did that (sorry, forgot to take a photo that time) and before I knew it, it was time to wash out the color. I didn’t think too much about washing out the color, but I’m glad it didn’t stain my tub too much (I did have to clean it after this because some dye did stick to it). My friend was right, it was a pretty simple process and I don’t think I screwed it up. I wish I had taken a before photo, but I wasn’t thinking about that. But this is my after photo and I can tell you that before dyeing it, I had a lot of gray hair on the side of my head. And now I don’t!
This wasn’t as good as getting it done by a professional, but it was much better than what I did in high school. And I will admit that I do feel a little better about myself now that I’m not seeing all the grays. But I never would have been protesting to get a salon open even with the boost that this gave to me. I know that right now, this is the safest way for me to color my hair. And if things remain closed for a few more months, I’ll probably ask my friend if she can help me with getting me some color again. Most of the people I know who do hair have been offering this to their clients. So if you are worried about your roots, reach out to your hairstylist to see if they can mix some color for you.
This isn’t how I normally would do my hair, but as I’ve said so many times, this isn’t normal times. I’m just grateful that I did have a chance to have a small bit of normalcy and to feel a bit more like myself. And I’m glad that nobody had to put themselves at risk for getting sick for me to do this.
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Doing Some Beautification (or Feeling Better From The Outside In)
Time For A Bit Of A Change (or Getting Chopped)
Getting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair)
Continuing To Get Back To Me (I Needed My Hair Done!)
Coconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick)
Getting Pushed Into Changing (or A Story About My Hair)
