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My Hair Makeover in a Box

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Next to Shella, I’m probably the second most adventurous person with hair at the office. In the past, I have been known to eliminate inches of hair by my own hand because I was simply bored or stressed out. One time when I had a life crisis in college, I took a pair of scissors to my mid back-length hair and transformed it into a pixie cut; in retrospect, it was kind of a “2007-era Britney” thing to do, but it was either that or expensive medication (I kid).

I’ve also enjoyed a happy history of hair dying: it was fire-engine red at one point (I wanted to be T-Boz okay), and then starting last year I bleached the absolute life out of it to get a two-tone effect.

Color blockin' ain't easy (Photo taken February 2014)

Color blockin’ ain’t easy (Photo taken February 2014)

But over time, I got busy and stopped paying attention to the way my hair looked. My haircut grew out into an uninspired shoulder-length snoozefest of a cut with blunt ends. The grey faded and gave way to blonde, which then turned into a gross stringy yellow that was beginning to become sentient. Basically, I was ready for a change.

le box 1That’s when L’Oreal Paris intervened and told me they could give me a complete hair makeover: they’d give me a more updated haircut and change my hair color, in a little makeover program called Hair Colorantology. Myself, along with five bloggers and journalists in print and online media, spent a day being introduced to color theory with Ibu Irma Hadisurya, whose CV includes accomplishments like helping founded Femina magazine and becoming the country’s first ever fashion editor.

Bu Irma spent a big part of her life studying color theory, and she took her expertise into the field of image consulting (among other activities, like regularly blogging). She told us that by understanding color theory, we can identify which colors suit us best based on our skin tone and eye colors.

So during the Hair Colorantology experience, we sat down with the endlessly graceful and gracious Bu Irma. She assessed all six of us, studying our skin tones individually and determining what colors are best suited to us. That’s when we learned that the new hair color we were going to get would come from one of the five new shades in their Excellence Fashion hair dyes, which you can actually buy these at any supermarket.

But what sets the Excellence Fashion series apart are its proprietary Hi-Lift, Hi-Visibility and Hi-Shine Complex, which gives a high-sheen hair color with powerful staying power. I was skeptical about the way my two-toned look was going to look after a box dye job, but I went with it because Bu Irma was the one who would pick out a color that’s right for me — and who can say that they’ve had Femina‘s first ever Fashion Editor pick out a hair color for them? She thought I would do well with a shade called Golden Nude Brown (see box on left), and I was on way way.

About forty minutes after two applications (once for the blond bits, another for the entire head), the process was over and the final result turned out to be pretty dang neat: my dark brown hair took on a more ashy medium brown hue, and the yucky yellow color blocked strands turned into an amazing ash grey. Do yo have any idea how difficult it is to get this sort of grey? In addition to having more tone to its color, I also noticed my hair was much more shiny and soft than before. Win.

But what’s the point of being in a makeover if we weren’t going to show off the results? All six of us were gussied up and lovingly clothed by Alex[a]lexa before being paraded out in a mini runway show to our fellow journalists and bloggers. I thought it was going to be mortifying, but I ended up enjoying my time in the spotlight, surely in part thanks to my new hair color (here’s a summary of how I felt the whole time).

There I am on the extreme right, not even looking at the camera (of course  ಠ_ಠ)

There I am on the extreme right, not even looking at the camera (of course ಠ_ಠ)

Here’s what I learned from my box hair dye makeover experience: the right color can bring out your confidence, and hair dyes that come in a box — especially the Excellence Fashion line — can be really, really great. But the most important thing I learned is that if I want that coveted Kelly Osbourne grey again, all I have to do is bleach my hair and buy a box of the Nude Golden Brown again, because it’s cheaper than getting it colored at a salon 😀

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