Typically I'm anit-Oprah. Not for any real reason, I just don't dig her style. However, last week at work I was really bored one night and I cam across this article...



in this magazine...




I'm on this 'budget' kick still, having not worked for the last year, and the last time I got my hair colored the total tab (cut and color) was $230. I will admit that when I paid that much I got color I loved, worked for my face and a great cut. It was just too painful to pay on a regular basis. The trade off (discount service providers) has never proven to be a good idea for me. The time I last used a cheap colorist I left with big, white chunks in my dark brown hair. Not good. Not good at all.

Since I have four days off and lots of laundry to do, I decided to give this a shot. Turns out, I think I've found my forever solution!

Here are pictures of the results:








I'm thinking my roots are still a little darker than I'd like compared to the rest of my hair. Next time I'll give them a bit more processing time on their own.

What did I use? 2 L'Oreal kits: (1) lightest auburn and (1) intense red. I did choose to follow the instructions in the article for adding my own highlights (which is the point of the thrid picture) and for that I used Clairol HairPainting Kit for blond/med brown.

The highlights were kind of a pain (you color the rest, rinse, dry and then do those) but I don't think I'd go w/o them. The color would be too flat.

I will say I wasted a TON of product. I used maybe a 16th of the highlighting product and about 1/4 of the dye. That was disturbing to me. But overall, I'm happy with the results. It's kind of worth buying the magazine for, though I hate to admit it. The tips are great!