I'm so embarassed.  For some reason I was thinking you were in California, not Texas. 

ooo ooo, good excuse!  Thank you.  By the way - just got back - the bike is fixed!  Yea!!

I most definitely have a hair horror story!! It goes a little something like this...

During the week between my wedding and honeymoon, I decided to dye my waist-length light brown hair and dye it black.

I have coveted long, flowing raven hair from birth, and had dyed it black many times before this instance. So I went to the store to pick up a box of hair colour. But....something was different this time! *dun dun dunnnn.....*

The store that I went to was fresh out of the Level 1 semi-permanent that I usually bought.

So, after walking around a bit, thinking it over, I decided to try the Level 2 demi-permanent black made by the same company. I figured, what would be the harm? It would only last a few weeks longer than the Level 1.....right??

So I rushed home and did what I'd set out to do. Ohhh I loved my new raven tresses at first, and the colour lasted through and well past my honeymoon. Even when the light brown roots showed through, I covered them with yet another dose of Level 2 demi-permanent. This one having a slight indigo tint to it, when added on top of the previous black, gave it absolutely gorgeous dimension!!

But.....the hairdye high was rather short-lived. In the weeks that followed, the new colour began to feel very unnatural to me (and I was beginning to notice how unnatural it looked). The stark indigo-black did not at all compliment my natural Celtic colouring, and I longed to see the fiery embers of red and gold in my own hair once again.

But the Level 2 did not wash out after a month. Nor after 2 months. Nor 3. I came to realize that due to the vast difference between my natural light auburn and this drastic black, that the colour had actually taken permanently!

The roots had surfaced yet again, and this time I did nothing. I refused to keep dying them to match (even with a Level 1) as they grew out. I also refused to go to a salon to have them strip the colour out, and then dye the length to match my natural colour. I had been sufficiently traumatized by unnatural chemical processes, and refused to do it ever again.

So one day, in a fit of desperation and hopelessness, I gathered my long, black hair into a ponytail....and handed my husband (of the time) a pair of scissors. That was a nightmare in itself, and I had to rush to my sister's house so she could even out the horrible hack-job that he had done! 

And that was the end of my longhair days as I knew them. Oh I ran around for 2 years with 2-tone hair. Light brown on top and black on the bottom. That was a really good look! 

But it forced me to start over from scratch, and I vowed to take care of my new growth from the first. Once my "roots" reached 6 inches in length, I took up little strands of hair, one at a time, and simply cut the black off.

I had to learn the hard way about the negative effects of chemical processing. But to this day, my colour has been au natural and I have worked very hard to give it the best treatment possible. 

It's true, level 2 dyes can stain the hair.  Some people it does wash out but not eveyone.  If the hair is pores and damaged it will stick even more.   The only thing I know washes out is level 1's like Loving Care.

Maggie - you are lucky your hubby is still speaking to you!   

Of course if you had done the same thing, someone would come up with the comment - "only a woman would do that"!

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Interesting. When I tried a "normal" level 2 dye several years ago, I couldn't even see it on my hair and when dye residue stopped showing up when I washed my hair, I assumed all of it had gone away.

I read so many awful gum stories I wanted to share this with everyone who has/may have one.  Maybe this will help avert a future disaster.

My brother used to get gum in his hair practically daily.  My mother used peanut butter to get the gum out, and it always worked.  No cutting.  She used it on me when my hair was long enough to sit on and my brother put gum into it.  I smelled like peanut butter, but no gum.  She always said it was the oil that removed the gum, so maybe just peanut oil or whatever kind you usually use on your hair would work as well. 

Also,  I  noticed some people discussing the 'split ender.'  I bought one and loved it.  I actually opened up the little hair compartment and checked every last little hair in there, and they were all just the split ends.  It did not change my length at all or cut off non-split ends.

It was a much faster way to get all the split ends.  The only problem with it was that it is very cheaply made. My thick, wavy hair made short work of it and I broke it the fourth or fifth time I used it. 

I noticed a difference the first time I used it.  My hair was much sleeker, since the splits werent trying to fly all around.  If you buy one, and I will get another, I just recommend that you follow the directions and use a very small section of hair at each pass.  It will take a while if your hair is really long or thick, but the mechanism that holds the hair is just thin plastic and can't take a large section of hair.

Hope someone finds that helpful.