Sadly, the plum color from my last appointment faded pretty quickly so I went to hair “doctor” Dairdre to sort out what could be done. Her prognosis/hypothesis- it was likely that my hair shaft was too saturated with the brown tones that I’ve been using for years that no matter what color she applied, my hair would migrate to that hair tone. The solution was to apply a cleanse, before applying color, to remove some of the pigment from the hair shaft so you could actually see the tone.
I’ve also been avoiding a hair trim/cut since I’ve been letting my hair grow out and finally able to pull it into a low ponytail while curly. Today, was THE day to go ahead and get the trim. I am guilty of the black folks stereotype about being attached to my hair length, but only when I’m trying to grow it out. It’s such a long process to get there when your hair is dry, kinky, and brittle that every inch…no, every half inch counts. Plus, I’m sure just about every woman of color has had the nightmare experience of a hairstylist chopping off way to much hair and having to wait literally years to grow it back. So, the plan was to blow my hair out and trim the worst of the damage. Then, I could return for a second round of trimming in a few months. That way, I could maintain some of the length. For me, my “kitchen” is at the crown of my head, and that’s always been where my hair breaks off the most.
COLOR
We decided to go with a red instead of the plum color which is something I had been considering anyway. We also went a little darker in the back to get closer to a jet black in contrast to the red in front. I love playing with looks through color! As always, she made sure to deep condition my hair using Davines Nounou Pak conditioning treatment.
Davines Nounou Pak, Nourishing Repairing Mask (deep conditioner)
TRIM
Once Dairdre blew out my hair to a relatively straight state, we looked through my hair in sections together. I know that hair stylists ideally want to cut your hair at the point where it’s most uniform and full. For me, in some sections, the bottom 3 inches had a lot of transparency which meant hair breakage- particularly in my “kitchen.” It’s not noticeable to me because I always wear my hair curly. This is where the negotiation took place. True to a good stylist, ultimately they want to make their clients happy while also keeping their hair healthy.
STYLE
Dairdre never flat ironed my hair before and she asked if I’d like it flat ironed out straight. My gut said “no,” but I knew my husband would love it (he’s not quite on board with the natural hair thing but he loves me just the same). As a result, I agreed, also curious to how I’d look.
RESULTS
Color, trim, and style were all great! Dairdre’s theory proved correct and my red tone looked a lot more bold. Check out a couple of photos below:
2 WEEKS LATER
Below is a photo of my hair about 2 weeks later, the way I would normally wear it. This is 4 days without conditioning, wetting, or washing my hair- something that has impressed me greatly about the moisturizing properties of Davines products. Also, you can see that the color was maintained. I really put that to the test having gone on a beach vacation after this appointment.
