hair dye & vinegar

I finally got my hair dyed here. I used to see my stylist about every seven weeks in Phoenix. I got my hair dyed the week before I came here. Then I got it done nine weeks later in Korea. Then I tried to do it about eleven weeks later myself with a box of bright purple dye I bought in Xiamen (cool colors are can only be found in big cities). I made the unfortunate discovery though, whilest I had a head semi full of dye of course, that I have enough hair that I require two boxes to cover my whole head, not one. It actually didn't look too bad, but I was definitely due.

I walked into a salon near my apartment and pointed to anything on the red/violet page of the dye book (having no clue on their skill level I didn't want to be too picky). They applied the dye and I read my book. And read some more. And some more. Then they tried to scrape the dye out and added some more. And then I read some more. And some more. Then we did another scraping and reapplication. All in all, it took about three hours to dye my hair and maybe four rounds of dye application. In the States if I get my hair straight dyed, just all over color, no highlights or lowlights or anything, it would take maybe an hour.

My students have told me that dyeing your hair causes cancer. As an avid hair dyer, I am inclined to disagree. Given that process though, and the fact that the dye made my scalp burn a bit, which typically only happens if you're going blond in the States, I think they might be on to something.

Either way, I'm definitely happy with the color. Granted I did pick the most expensive one; here you select the brand of dye you want and they all have different price points. It's holding up very well also. I'm currently washing my hair every day, which could potentially destroy the color really quickly, but it's doing fine.

When I was younger, I used to wash my hair every day. When I came to China, I was down to about every two or three days to preserve my color. Here, I cut back to every four or five days. I wasn't even brushing my hair at the point either, it had really good texture and the further I was in between washes the more compliments I got on it. And then I completely stopped shampooing it.

I have some friends here that don't wash their hair, they use vinegar (specifically apple cider vinegar) to clean it. I'd heard something about this in the States as well, not using soap or shampoo; it's supposed to be really good for you once your body adjusts. I'm not typically the person that is super worried about using the most natural products or whatever, but if all other things are equal, I'm definitely going to choose the natural route. Between that, curiosity and the whole "if I don't try it now, when else will I have the opportunity" thing, I decided to try it.

The transition to vinegar can be a greasy one while your hair rebalances, so I'm "washing" with vinegar every day. It makes my hair feel really soft when it's wet (like there's a bunch of conditioner in it). It's pretty normal when it's dry, aside from grease in my bangs and at the crown. I'm on about two and a half weeks of this, but the salon washed my hair quite a bit when I got my hair dyed, so we'll see how it is in another week or two.