Today it is a "piece of cake" to color your hair.
You go to the local Target or Wal-Mart, you walk directly to the hair coloring section,
and you spend the next hour or so trying to decide which color you want to be, what
type of technique you want to use, or what texture you would like your mixture to be,
ex: crème, mouse, gel, liquid ... . You name it, they now have it.
It is a miracle, and I will tell you why ... .
I grew up in the 60's and 70's. We had yet to see anything that even remotely
resembled a mouse, or crème non-drip anything! The 1960's had just seen the dawn
of the shampoo in hair color.
Before this a popular spray was used, as was Henna. Hair coloring with Henna also reemerged as a
favorite at this time.
In the 70's hair coloring was an all day affair. Young children, or teenagers were rarely
allowed to color their hair. It was usually something reserved for your mom, or your
favorite aunt, or the best friend/neighbour down the street.
The reason for this, I believe, was because it was expensive and also nothing less than
a messy, ammonia laced, drippy nightmare and people did not suffer through it lightly.
By the 1980's there came the choice of temporary, permanent,
semi-permanent, and now demi-permanent color, which combines
semi-permanent with the no fade properties of permanent color.
It was at this time you really see an influx of hair coloring and
some very bizarre hair colors and styles are born!
No one is choosing to look like himself or herself. If you are a
brunette you probably want to be a blonde, and if you are blonde
you probably want to have highlights of gold, (or purple, or green),
what ever strikes your fancy is now available to you on any store
shelf for a minimal cost.
There are even vegetable dyes available for our lovers of nature
and the natural style.
Hair coloring is not only for women. In the 1990's men started to see the effects of
coloring their hair and now create some of the more sophisticated "tipping" styles
around. One minute you will see Bruce Willis without hair and the next time around he
is a blonde with a bad haircut.
Men also use hair coloring to change their entire appearance from their eyebrows to
their beards and moustaches, creating more younger looking and less graying effects into middle age.
Given all these new and exciting choices of hair color the only question now is "What's
right for me?" While you might be tempted to choose a color that is rebellious or
outrageous, you might want to stick to something more neutral for your eye and skin
color, ash for cool tones, and reds for warm tones.
You will be happier for the choice these days.
