Hair Dye Debacle

I have some hard-earned advice to share. Don’t use Loreal’s highlighting kit on your hair if you’ve recently had a baby. No, I have to confess I’m not sure if it was the kit, the hormones or something else. What I do know is what happened scared me enough that I may never highlight my hair again.

I was good during my pregnancy. No hair dye. No chemicals (except for that weed kill incident). No vanity. But once that baby was out, I was more than ready to bring blond highlights back. I waited nearly five months though, not wanting to subject the baby to the odor of a home kit. Finally, I could wait no longer. I hatched a plan. Bring the baby to grandma’s where she would highlight my hair grandpa would watch baby. Foolproof, right?

Well, baby had other plans.

She ate before we left home, but mostly nibbles. Once at grandma’s she went down for a nap — that lasted just long enough for us to pull my hair through the cap. Once we were ready to bring on the chemicals (outside of course), she was ready to be held. And not just by anybody. Only mom would do. Grandpa tried his hardest. Grandma rushed through the process of spreading the chemical mix across my hair and covering it with plastic in order to take over with the baby. Five or so minutes longer none of us could take her cries — which had escalated to the loudest screams I’d yet heard my sweet baby make. Forget it. My baby needed milk. Oh, why had I decided I needed to highlight my hair?

As I sat down to give the baby some milk to quiet the screams, I realized that my scalp was starting to burn. Ouch. Five minutes later it really hurt. Baby was sated and quieted -- although she was still hiccuping – so we rushed to the sink. As soon as grandma and I left the room, the screams returned. Grandma left me to rinse alone, and headed back to calm the baby. I rubbed and the burning stopped,but as I continued rinsing I realized way too much hair was coming out. Had I actually melted some strands? The answered appeared to be yes. I washed it a few more times to get rid of the strong chemical odor, and then tried to comb it out. More hair. Was I going to have any left when this was over?

I decided to leave it alone, and focus instead on the baby, who still wasn’t too thrilled. She wanted mom.

We headed home. Once we stepped in the doors, she was calm and happy. Mom, however, was a mess.

And that’s how I learned my lesson. Stay away from home highlighting kits and women who have never done it before. And plans that involve babies never turn out how you thought they would.