Operation "I Can Highlight My Own Hair, Yes I Can."

Step 1. Fuschia Highlights.
Step 2. Husband says I look Crazy.
Step 3. Sally Beauty Supply.
Step 4. Dark Ash Brown Lowlights.
Step 5. Caramel Highlights.
Step 6. Call a Professional.

Yeah.... so, a few months ago, I had a professional put some copper and magenta highlights in my hair, and I loved the magenta streaks so much I kept staring at them all day long. When my roots started to grow out, I decided that I wanted MORE fuschia, so I thought I could try it myself because I could not afford to go back to the salon.

Enter L'Oreal Colour Rays in Fuschia Flash. My local CVS just happened to have a box in stock. Bonus! According to the box:

A Rush of Colour:

Deep and graphic. Pure concentrated colour. For highlights so intense, they show up even on the darkest hair.
Do a few flashes or an all-over look. It's easy to experiment with our patented highlighting wand. No messy caps to cope with.
A double dose of super-fresh after-colour conditioning shampoo so hair won't freak out or dry out.
Colour Rays. Only for the experimental.

Hmmmm... I consider myself "experimental." Sounds like this is for me, because I like a rush of colour, espeically when it's spelled with a "u." So I gave it a try.

I tried to pick out small strands and go easy, but I was afraid it wouldn't show up bright enough. I guess I went a little bit overboard, and when Husband got home, he said I looked like either 1. a former Goth girl who is almost 40 and trying to rediscover my youth, in an embarrassing and inappropriate way; or 2. someone out of touch with reality and social norms. Either way, it did not sound like a compliment. Off to Sally Beauty Supply for help! [By the way, that store is like Hotel California. It's really hard to leave!]

I decided that I probably needed to use foil to separate the strands so the color wouldn't cover my entire head. The box said "you can lay each highlighted strand down onto the rest of the hair and it won't bleed." Apparently not true with Fuschia Flash! I bought both dark brown AND caramel highlighting kits, the foil, and got down to bidness. Dark Ash Brown first, and it definitely calmed down the neon fuschia to a more "normal" hue. Then on to Caramel, and it didn't really do anything. At that point, it was late Sunday night, and I needed to just take a break. I decided to sleep on it.

In the end, my friends made the following comments:

"I hope you played some appropriate music, Bauhaus???, to celebrate the "moment of fuschia"... ahahaha! (Our poor guys... they must be like, "I have to walk around with HER looking like THAT???!!!", too bad they're not more like Elton John)... hahaha!"

"The fuschia probably compliments the green in the law firm logo as well as the frosted glass."

And my favorite: "Gillian, step away from anything in a box!"


Actually, the Sam Gilliam sculpture in our stairwell has tons of magenta in it. Maybe I CAN wear this color to work after all!