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Has my hairdresser been ripping me off?
Debb1e
Posts: 451 Forum Member
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As a natural brunette (albeit greying now!) I decided, in January, to try going blonde. I had previously been colouring my hair using boxed colourants from Boots close to my natural (dark brown) colour.
When I went for my initial consultation the hairdresser said that because I was naturally dark and I had used boxed colourants for so many years, going blonde would be a gradual process and the best I could go for is dark blonde (a sort of light caramel colour) as I'd never be able to go a light ash or platinum as it would be too harsh.
Taking his advice, during the first session he used a lightener and carried out what he called "colour correction" and, after three hours, I emerged a slightly lighter brown (certainly not blonde!) at a cost of over 80 quid.
Since then, I've been going back every 4 weeks or so to have my roots done and to have a few more highlights put in my hair. Each time I've been in the salon for 2 to 3 hours and the cost has varied from 65 pounds to £97.50 last time, and I've come to the conclusion that I just cannot afford to keep this up - going blonde was turning out to be a time-consuming, very expensive process.
After six months I had become a dark blonde shade, which wasn't what I wanted - I still wanted to be quite a lot lighter, and a 'cooler' shade like ash (at the moment I have a 'warm' shade of blonde which is slightly darker at the back, probably a remnant from my brunette days).
So I decided to take the bull by the horns and have a go at colouring my hair myself. I bought one of the Feria platinum boxed kits, mixed the lightener and the toner etc together in the bottle, slapped it on and left it for 45 minutes before shampooing and using a purple coloured finishing conditioner to counteract any brassiness.
The result? I am now a lovely shade of light blonde, very close to what I want (one more session with the Feria should do it) all for £5.99.
I now feel a bit disgruntled with my hairdresser as I've paid out hundreds over the last six months yet I managed to achieve what I wanted for under six quid.
Has my hairdresser been ripping me off? Do they all do this, to make you keep coming back and spending more money?
Would any hairdressers out there care to comment?
When I went for my initial consultation the hairdresser said that because I was naturally dark and I had used boxed colourants for so many years, going blonde would be a gradual process and the best I could go for is dark blonde (a sort of light caramel colour) as I'd never be able to go a light ash or platinum as it would be too harsh.
Taking his advice, during the first session he used a lightener and carried out what he called "colour correction" and, after three hours, I emerged a slightly lighter brown (certainly not blonde!) at a cost of over 80 quid.
Since then, I've been going back every 4 weeks or so to have my roots done and to have a few more highlights put in my hair. Each time I've been in the salon for 2 to 3 hours and the cost has varied from 65 pounds to £97.50 last time, and I've come to the conclusion that I just cannot afford to keep this up - going blonde was turning out to be a time-consuming, very expensive process.
After six months I had become a dark blonde shade, which wasn't what I wanted - I still wanted to be quite a lot lighter, and a 'cooler' shade like ash (at the moment I have a 'warm' shade of blonde which is slightly darker at the back, probably a remnant from my brunette days).
So I decided to take the bull by the horns and have a go at colouring my hair myself. I bought one of the Feria platinum boxed kits, mixed the lightener and the toner etc together in the bottle, slapped it on and left it for 45 minutes before shampooing and using a purple coloured finishing conditioner to counteract any brassiness.
The result? I am now a lovely shade of light blonde, very close to what I want (one more session with the Feria should do it) all for £5.99.
I now feel a bit disgruntled with my hairdresser as I've paid out hundreds over the last six months yet I managed to achieve what I wanted for under six quid.
Has my hairdresser been ripping me off? Do they all do this, to make you keep coming back and spending more money?
Would any hairdressers out there care to comment?
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Comments
They're laughing all the way to the bank .
I use diy highlights but would never use a block lightening colour on my hair. Its not the initial lightening but the maintenance. Any bleach product strips the colour our of your hair and in doing so damages the hair. How are you going to deal with the roots?
I was just going to buy the same colour and use it to do a root touch up. Or buy those Nice 'n' Easy Root Retouch kits.
You may feel ripped off and they probably could have got you lighter quicker but I don't they were intentionally ripping you off. You were paying for their knowledge and your hair benefitted from that. At least you can do it on the cheap now
What dye do you use?
I am dark brown. Would love to go lighter
I think that if you like going to the hairdresser and enjoy the inane chat then it is probably worth it, but I don't.
Luckly I have started to go white like my male parent, I am now 75-80% white and mixed with my natural colour it looks like ash blond highlights when I have washed it.
Like this (this isn't me and my hair isn't as long)
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/c5/3b/5e/c53b5eaccbfc025f47c1f4cb18397848.jpg