When I was in 7th grade, I always wanted to dye my hair. At the time, I wanted to dye it red, but my mom was very strict on hair dying because she wanted me to keep my hair virgin. She would scare me by telling me all these horrible things like my hair would fall out or it won’t grow or it’s going to damage my hair. Even though she said that, it never left my mind since then because I wanted to experiment with colored hair. My mom would tell me to get highlights in my hair, but in my opinion mostly everyone gets highlights the same color and I was more into the blue, purple, green, pink, etc. type of colors.

After much research, I decided to dye my hair purple with blue and pink. I got inspired by YouTube star Gabbie Hanna, also known as the “Gabbie Show”, in getting an idea of choosing the colors. I knew I wanted some type of a blue in my hair, but then when I looked at the sample photo that I sent my stylist, I knew I was going to like the purple and magenta in it.

My brother was the only one that knew I was going to dye it. The day before, I was very nervous. I was nervous because I didn’t know if it was going to turn out good or not. I’ve never trusted anyone with my hair other than my grandma, who always gave me hair trims here and there. I was nervous because of the big transition from going from dark brown hair to multi-colored hair and how people would react to it. I have never seen my hair in a different color before, so I knew this was going to be crazy. Though, I knew I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time.

I went to Vanity Beauty Bar in downtown Bakersfield, which was recommended by the person who cut my hair last year. My stylist, Mona Medrano, had been texting me since I had mentioned to her that I wanted to dye my hair, and I told her that I also wanted to thin out. My thick hair gave me so many headaches I just had to thin it. That process alone took Medrano 40 minutes. I was shocked on how much hair she took out because that hair alone could be enough for someone else. Medrano actually mentioned, later, to her co-worker that it filled up their trash can.

The next process was bleaching my hair. Which I had originally thought was where the process began. I was saying my farewell wishes to my brown virgin hair before and then Medrano was off. This procedure was probably the longest to wait for because she had to add the bleach and then put foil on all of my hair. The foil was to heat the hair and make the bleach process go faster. Sadly, some of the bleach got on my favorite long sleeve shirt, but that was partially my fault for trying to find my “comfort spot” and my hair falling to my back. Medrano told me she had used eight small containers of bleach because I had so much hair.

When the bleach settled in, Medrano started getting the colors. What was cool about dying my hair with the colors I chose is that I let Medrano play with it. I just showed her a picture to get an idea and she just did the rest.

She rinsed the excess bleach and then she put the first strip of hair dye on. The only thing that was on my mind at that point was just excitement and nerves of how it was going to look. Like I have mentioned before, I have never seen my hair dyed into a different color. At this point of the process there was no going back, obviously.

Right after the color dying part was done, Medrano washed my hair and I was asking her questions of how to take care of it, so it wouldn’t get damaged. That was probably one of my fears in dying my hair is taking care of it. I feel like I’m not good at taking of stuff like hair dying or piercing my ear or nose because with that comes a process of instructions. In this situation, I have to get used to taking cold/warm showers.

When she was done washing my hair, she blow-dried it and started curling my hair. Medrano was very nice in teaching me how to curl my hair. The only thing I know how to do is straighten my hair, but that sometimes comes bad when I do it, which is on rare occasions. I don’t spend that much to my hair when going to school. I just put it into a ponytail that takes about five minutes and that’s about it.

When she was done curling it, she did the big reveal and I was in love. It looked better than I expected to, and Medrano did a great job overall. This was a six hour process, but it felt like four hours. I went into this process of dying my hair afraid and came out loving my hair and wanting to show it off to the world.

My mom and brother were at Costco when I arrived home, so I had texted my brother to warn me when they were on their way to the house. I got my phone and recorded my mom’s reaction. She was shocked, but also loved it, too. She said that the stylist did a great job in dying it.

My mom told me that her fear was having someone dye my hair incorrectly and damaging it.

If anyone reading this hasn’t dyed their hair, I definitely recommend trying it because it’s always a good thing to change things up. It’s always it important to find an adventure in life. I’m so glad I did this. I’m planning on dying it and experimenting with my hair more in the future.