Operation Natural Hair Color...Psych.

I have not so much completed this goal to go back to my natural hair color as I have redacted it.

For years I have dyed my hair black and spent a lot of time experimenting until I found a color that was as black as they get, but still natural looking. I have very fair skin and I think it suits me well. My grandmother has natually black hair and last time I went to visit her a couple of her friends told me that they could tell I was Carmel Lee's granddaughter because of my black hair. In actuality, my hair is a warm light brown, which I have never appreciated and have been coloring since I was 15. For several years in college, including when I met Donnie, I even had pink hair. It had become my signature look, but was a tedious color to wear because I felt like my entire wardrobe had to be muted or I risked looking like a clown.


Me and Lucas at my sister's wedding in July 2012. Black Hair. I should definitely make this face more often since it is so becoming.

Then I had a child. Everyone always comments about how much he favors Donnie and he does look remarkably like Donnie did as a small child. When commenting on his looks my mother-in-law will often console me regarding Lucas' lack of my genes by telling me that Lucas has my mouth. And he does, but you know what? He has Donnie's smile. He does have my natural coloring. He has fair olive-toned skin, which is incredibly sensitive like mine (sorry, baby), and warm light brown hair and sometimes this pulls at my heart strings and makes me want to go back to my natural hair color.

Me and Lucas at Christmas 2012. Black Hair.

It would cost a small fortune that I don't have to lift the black out of my hair, not to mention the fact that it would likely wreck my hair with so much processing. My sister-in-law recently had black lifted from her hair to go a rich red and she survived the assault on her locks. I fear I might not be so lucky since I do so much heat styling and the texture of my hair was once dramatically altered by bleaching a smallish streak. Since I use a deposit-only color that has to be retouched regularly I thought my best route to be gradually use a lighter color as it fades. My stylist agreed that this should work fine as long as I don't let the color process too long on the ends of my hair. In preparation, I grew my roots as long as I could tolerate so that the black would be faded as much as possible and instead of my usual (racist-ly named) Oriental Black, I purchased a box of Black Brown.

Then, I had a change of heart. The black suits me and I love it. I get a lot of compliments on how striking it is with my skin tone and often get inquiries as to whether or not it is natural. Side note: Why do women always ask each other whether or not some trait they have is natural? I often get this question about my hair and my eyelashes and it makes me uncomfortable. It is not the same as asking "What mascara do you use?" or "How do you style your hair?" It is more personal than that and sometimes I feel like it is an accusation in the form of a question. And, frankly almost no body is natural. We all get up in the morning and have some sort of grooming ritual. I do, however, appreciate knowing that people aren't convinced my hair color is not natural. That is hypocritical, I know, considering my recent statements, but we are complicated creatures, so be it.

I went ahead and used the box of Black Brown because I am not one to waste money, but as soon as I need to color again I will go back to my beloved Oriental Black.

Freshly colored black-brown hair.



Close-up. Do you like my bath towel backdrop?



Obligatory car shot highlights my poor attention to detail. Notice light roots. I promise to do better next time.

Do you have any hair color stories to share? I doubt the color I use is cruelty-free, so my continued use of it is contradictory to my goal to switch over to only cruelty-free products. Do you have a good cruelty-free black hair color to recommend?