Perhaps because I never went through a Kool-Aid/highlighter hair phase in middle or high school, I’ve been wanting to dye my hair pink or blue or purple for a few years now. Unfortunately, it seems like there is rarely a good time for an adult with my particular job to look like Frenchie after her beauty school mishap. But spending a few weeks traveling before moving to a foreign country turned out to be the perfect time — especially since I had totally bleached hair (the perfect canvas for pink) and was planning to dye it a darker, more natural color before leaving the US.

So, about a week before we left DC, I went to my fabulous hair stylist/colorist (Carrie Butler at Salon Roi), and she dyed my hair an amazing shade of pink — with brighter pink at the roots and some streaks for dimension. It was awesome.

In case you’re wondering about the process, she had to first bleach my roots (the rest was already bleached), then she and an assistant put pink dye all over my hair, with some parts separated out for darker pink (those are the pieces wrapped in foil in the photo). It ended up brighter/deeper than I had expected, but I loved it!!

The day after I got it done, I ended up having to go to the Pentagon, which was a pretty funny experience. Let’s just say that most people in that building are not used to seeing Jem hair.

The interesting thing is that the color seemed to fade a bit every day, even if I didn’t shampoo it or get it wet. This is how it looked about a week after having it done:

I still loved it, but it was definitely lighter. And by the time I had my appointment to get it dyed brownish, it was a lovely pastel.

The pink-to-brownish process took quite a while — my mom’s colorist did it, and she had to put two different weird colors on it before she could put on the real color, and even with that, it still faded pretty quickly. Turns out that bleaching all color out of your hair over and over isn’t the best idea! Who would have guessed? 🙂

I have to admit I’m kind of sad I can’t have pink hair all the time, but it definitely requires a lot of upkeep! If you do decide to go pink (or blue, or purple), I would recommend you ask your colorist to a suggest a shampoo made for that particular color. And/or start off on the brighter side, even if you’re hoping for a pastel. It will fade fast!