The Developer

Lately, I've been thinking about colouring my hair. The grays are starting to get out of control. Initially, I was hoping that I could just let nature take its course, and allow myself to age gracefully, without artificial intervention. But, I'm vain dammit! I don't want all this sporadic gray hair, so I set out to do something about it. In a budget friendly sort of way, of course. I am , after all, a SAHM on a tight budget! So, while at Target today ( I spend way too much time and money at Target!) I picked up a box of L'OREAL hair color which promised to cover those pesky grays. Once I arrived back home, I ran to the bathroom ready to tackle this hair coloring thing head on. I haven't colored my hair in a long time. Probably not since having children. Pre-children, I used to have my hair highlighted professionally. You know, back in the day when I was working and had a little extra money for pampering. Not that I'm blaming my boys for my gray hair, lack of disposable income, or anything.

Once settled in the bathroom, with my box of conceitedness, I briefly read the instructions, while thinking to myself that I should really slow down and read them thoroughly. But, hey, I was in a rush and excited to be rid of the gray strands once and for all!!! I read "Option B" which is for a full head application if you have never coloured your hair..and decided yes, that was me! So, I pulled out the Protective Creme Developer and began to "apply it all over" just as it read in the instructions. I could almost see those grays fading away with each stroke, and I was stoked! The entire bottle was empty, and my hair was "saturated" just as the instructions had stated, so now I had thirty minutes to wait until rinsing it out ... twiddly dee, twiddly dum, what to do now?

The culprit .. vanity in a box.

This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to dump out the remaining contents of the box and see what they were all about. I had been assuming the protective conditioner, which was mentioned in the instruction pamphlet, was in there. I did pull out the conditioner, and then I noticed a tube that read "protective color creme." YIKES-- it hit me! This meant I wasn't actually "colouring" my hair. I had just applied the "developer" and I wasn't exactly sure what the developer, without the added colour, was going to do to my hair. I immediately ran to the shower, turned it on, and began to frantically get out of my clothes .. I needed to wash this developer out of my freaking hair before it turned neon orange or something! I jumped into the cold shower with my undies still on, totally panicking. What on earth was I doing applying hair colour without reading the entire insert first? What part of "read the enclosed instructions carefully" didn't I freaking understand??? I deserved whatever bizarre hair colour I ended up with! Trying to pull off my wet undergarments, in the shower, proved to be a chore in itself .. and I was praying... please don't let me fall and break a hip or end up with some sort of outlandish hair colour. This I decided, is what one gets for being vain!! This is my punishment!

Once I had shampooed and conditioned my hair multiple times, I got out of the shower and began drying my locks with great trepidation .. squinting and peering to see if it was still the same gray streaked hair .. and lo and behold it was! YAY!! I'm not sure if I'll be brave enough to tackle home colouring again .. maybe some things are better left to the professionals.

Anyone else have an amusing hair colouring story?