Thursday, June 07, 2007

I See Myself in.....Black Leather

I've been wanting to color my hair jet black like Salma Hayek's for a long time. For years, every time I've gotten my hair colored or highlighted, it's been for a shade lighter than my natural dark brown hair. I've had caramel highlights, red highlights, I even had it colored J.Lo blonde once with disastrous results. I don't know how the Beyonces and J.Lo's pull the "tan skin with blonde hair" look off, I can't do it.

But black I can do. I asked my hair stylist just how much it would cost to get a pro dye job to match Salma's jet black hue, and nearly fainted hearing the cost. It was way over my budget. Then she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "But you could get the same results for $9.99 using a box of Loreal Feria in Black Leather." This is why I love my stylist, she's always got a cheap style tip up her sleeve.



So $9.99 later, I got my hair color from CVS. The application was a little drippy, and I permanently stained my bath mats with spots of black dye, but after two days, the color finally came through in my hair. This stuff really works, and most of all, it's made my hair less dull and more shiny in appearance.





I'm still a little fascinated with playing around with different shades of brown though. I think once this color wears off, I'm going to try the shade Keri Washington wears, Espresso. For under $10 bucks, it's cheap enough to try without breaking the bank. Although next time, I'm going to remember to cover my bath mats with some newspaper. The dye may be cheap, but the mats, not so much.


photo via

7 comments:

Unknown said...

uh oh...coloring hair black is not a good idea. It is really difficult to color over it, you need to strip it (even if it isn't a permanent dye) before you use another color. I had to wait to cut it all out before I could use another lighter color. Although you must look gorgeous with the black hair! Why don't you ever keep you natural color, it is so pretty.

Chic Mommy said...

really mona? I didn't even think of that, that I would have to strip the color before I could dye it lighter. I might have to get a pro job after all.

I actually spent most of this entire year with my natural hair color and it was starting to look blah to me. As I've grown older, it's started to look really matte as well, no shine at all, and my stylist said I had no "tone" to my hair anymore. Normally I get highlights or lowlights to combat this problem, but I decided to take a chance and just go jet black. It's looks neat, just like the picture on the box. I'm just waiting to see what happens when the roots grow in, if it's too contrasting I might need to go get it fixed by a pro.

Mystic said...

This looks awesome ! Chic Mommy, can you help me out with some advice: I have badly wanted to color my hair (to some lighter color) for sometime. But even though I am not thirty yet, my genes have gifted me some grey-hairs. Now, I am really wondering if coloring would increase the number of grey hairs. Any idea ?

Cindi said...

God bless Loreal hair color. I've been paying majorly big bucks to get my hair high/low lighted until the dark ash blond was really light blond. I decided in an effort to cut back expenses to go back to it's 'natural' color. I've done this before and then gone back to a lighter color which I always end up needing to have done professionally due to it's tendency to pick of red tones. Good for you for trying it and even better that you like the results!! BTW Mystic I don't have any grey hairs after YEARS of coloring so don't think that it causes more of them if you're genetically predisposed to them you will have them no matter what you try to do but can cover them with color!

Chic Mommy said...

mystic, I totally agree with cj's advice! Coloring doesn't give you more grey hairs at all, but it does an amazing job of covering them. Think of it this way, it's a nice excuse to play around with hair color.

I once got the most compliments on my hair when I dyed it Rosewood (by Clairol Natural Instincts) It made my hair kind of reddish brown, really neat. Even the hairdresser asked me what color it was.

Mystic said...

Thanks Chic-M and CJ for the good advice. Now I am on a mission ..to get sassy hair :).

Chic-M, did you try Egyptian Plum - Burgundy Brown ? I found it next to Rosewood in the clairol website and looks a shade darker. I have dark brown hair and a complexion like Lara dutta.

I love your blog, pretty cool, funny and informative.

AndTHEN... said...

ur a genious
=)
and...
WHOSE UR STYLIST!!?!?!?!?
lol